Cuban Airport Security Act of 2017

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3328) to require a study regarding security measures and equipment at Cuba's airports, require the standardization of Federal Air Marshal Service agreements, require efforts to raise international aviation security standards, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of legislation that will address the critical need to enhance security at airports in Cuba and across the globe.

Last week, I had the privilege to lead a congressional delegation overseas to see firsthand investments our foreign partners in Europe and the Middle East have made to enhance aviation security. We face an unprecedented threat landscape, and they are clearly responding to it.

In order to keep Americans safe, we must advance collaborative counterterrorism efforts with our allies and take a more stringent and risk-based approach with countries that are more hostile to the United States.

In leading this delegation to examine aviation security at international airports, I had the opportunity to meet with many members of our Foreign Service and military, who all work tirelessly on behalf of all of us to advance America's interests abroad.

Unfortunately, it has recently come to light that more than 20 of our American diplomats who were working at the United States Embassy in Havana were the victims of a sonic attack. As a result, many of these members of our Foreign Service have been diagnosed with serious injuries and dangerous symptoms, and, in some cases, even permanent brain damage.

Reports indicate that these attacks started as early as May of 2016, exactly one year after the previous administration removed Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. Our government told our diplomats Cuba was safe. The reality was quite the opposite, and, because of that mistake, some of our diplomats will pay a permanent price.

These horrific attacks on members of our dedicated Foreign Service raise numerous questions about how much trust and, indeed, how much confidence we can have in the Cuban Government.

We have to ask ourselves: If Cuba is unable to ensure the safety and security of foreign diplomats working in the embassies there, how can it possibly prevent terrorists and other nefarious actors from accessing its airports and infiltrating flights bound for the United States?

I recall last year when the Obama administration entered into opening up flights to Cuba, they ceded so much of the authority to the Cuban Government, the communist Cuban Government, over who they are going to hire, who is going to work with the American agencies, and who is going to be in charge of security; and we have very little control and, indeed, very little oversight over anything to do with those airports, yet American citizens are going to be going there and possibly facing danger. That is a real concern.

The legislation we are considering today requires that Cuba's airports be subjected to additional security to ensure that inbound flights to the United States are secure.

I am not here today to relitigate the wider policy towards Cuba or the Cuban Government, but I am here to ensure that Cuba and the rest of the global aviation community are held to security standards that are sufficient in these modern times to respond to the evolving and sometimes grave threats that the aviation sector faces on a regular basis.

The International Civil Aviation Organization standards, which currently serve as the benchmark minimum requirements for all airports with flights to the United States, are simply too weak; and I would submit that they are becoming outdated, given the fact that terrorism aspects nationwide and, indeed, worldwide routinely are adapting, and these standards are not.

This legislation we are considering today requires the Trump administration to take steps to raise minimum standards which will elevate American aviation security around the globe.

No matter how strong our domestic airport and aircraft security is, we must continue to raise the standard of global aviation security for foreign countries and last-point-of-departure airports. It is imperative that aviation security standards are robust and that these standards are commonplace in foreign countries, especially those with flights to the United States.

It is also imperative that these countries meet these standards; not just say they are going to meet these standards, but that they are, in fact, meeting the standards, something we found out recently is not always the case.

Confidence in aviation security at home begins with the assurance that our global partners are enforcing security standards abroad. By passing this bill today, we can demonstrate to the global community that the United States sees international aviation security as critical, because raising the aviation security standard abroad will obviously and ultimately keep us safe at home.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman McCaul and Chairman Sires for joining me in championing this important piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to thank all the members of the Homeland Security Committee and their staffs for putting politics aside, as we often do on this great committee, and supporting this bill unanimously.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important piece of legislation to enhance our national security.

Mr. Speaker, before I close, I would like to note and echo the sentiments of my colleague and leader of this committee, Mr. McCaul. There are more than 50 bills now sitting over in the Senate that have passed the House from the Homeland Security Committee. The very words ``homeland security'' should not be of question, and they should not be something to serve

as an impediment to keeping our country safe; it should be just the opposite. Therefore, I join Mr. McCaul and urge my colleagues in the Senate to move swiftly on the passage of these bills to keep our country safe.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC, August 30, 2017.

Hon. Michael McCaul,

Chairman, House Committee on Homeland Security, Washington,

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and my friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill for the reasons that I have already spoken about, but I do want to note that there are two things in this bill that are very important. One is to give us the ability to examine whether or not the airports in Cuba are indeed safe.

As you heard from the statements earlier during this colloquy from myself, from Mr. Vela, and from Mr. McCaul, there are gaps in our knowledge of Cuba that are simply unique to most of the other aviation communities. It is incumbent upon us to try and find out what is going on down there.

As my colleague, Mr. McCaul, stated, we were denied visas because they knew we were coming to look at their airports. They allow very little oversight from the TSA at their airports.

They or someone in their country have attacked our embassy employees. The communist Cuban party controls the vast majority of what happens with aviation with very little knowledge of what the internal workings of that are. They are not collaborative partners at all, and that is a major concern.

The other part of the bill is reviewing international aviation standards.

Are they keeping up to date with evolving threats, such as the laptop threat and others that we know of around the world? Are they adhering to the standards that are set by the ICAO? And are those standards sufficient going forward?

Those are all things we need to take a look at. I urge my colleagues to pass this bill because it is a Homeland Security bill. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate, including Senator Rubio, my good friend who is championing the companion bill, I hope that he pushes it over there quickly; and I hope we get this to the President's desk for signature because we can't mess with things that involve homeland security.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3328, the Cuban Airport Security Act.

The United States and the global aviation community face an adaptive and agile enemy. Terrorist groups continue to target passenger aircraft and pursue new attack methods.

With those threats in mind, the legislation before us today focuses on raising the level of security in Cuba. H.R. 3328 will ensure that Congress is able to continue its oversight of the TSA's efforts to ensure the Cuban Government adopts aviation security initiatives and makes important security advancements. It is critical that the gains achieved are not eroded.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the House Homeland Security Committee passed H.R. 3328, the Cuban Airport Security Act of 2017, by voice vote in September. While the legislation is focused on raising the level of aviation security in Cuba, it has broader implications.

H.R. 3328 includes a provision requiring the TSA to develop a template for agreements with foreign partners for Federal air marshals to carry out security operations on flights departing or arriving on foreign soil.

As Mr. Katko mentioned, just last week there were news reports that the DHS and the TSA had acknowledged that intelligence indicates that terrorists are plotting another massive attack on U.S. aircraft.

In the current climate of aviation security threats, the United States has a critical role to play in raising the baseline of global aviation security to keep the traveling public safe, in coordination with our international partners.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support for H.R. 3328, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Cuban Airport Security Act. Last-point-of-departure airports are critically important to our homeland security. One only need look at the latest laptop ban that was instituted at 10 last-point-of-departure airports, given the fact that the terrorists have now learned how to turn them into explosive devices.

The American people should have grave concern about the level of security in place at any foreign airport where the host government refuses to allow strict inspections of airport security by Members of Congress.

As a footnote, Mr. Speaker, it was just last year that Mr. Katko and I applied for visas to the Government of Cuba to inspect these airports to see how safe they were, and the Cuban Government's response to that was to deny our visa applications.

What is more concerning is that over the course of the last year, the United States Government personnel in Cuba have been targeted and subjected to harmful sonic attacks, which in some cases have caused permanent brain damage. This must not be tolerated.

Too many questions remain when it comes to Cuba's airports. Congress is still largely in the dark in terms of Cuba's security equipment, training procedures, and other perimeter security.

This bill takes an important step forward to shed light on current inadequacies and help to ensure proper oversight of inbound flights from Cuba to the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend my good friend from New York (Mr. Katko) for his continued leadership on aviation security and last- point-of-departure airports, which has been critical in bringing these issues to the forefront, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.