Airport Perimeter and Access Control Security Act of 2017

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

I rise today in strong support of my legislation H.R. 665, the Airport Perimeter and Access Control Security Act.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be joined by my colleague from New York (Mr. Katko), as well as my colleagues, Ranking Member Thompson, and Members Rice, Richmond, and Swalwell.

Since I first was elected to Congress in 2010, I have worked to secure our Nation's airports from porous perimeters and unsecure access control points.

Last year, at my request, the Government Accountability Office released an independent report of all airports within the Transportation Security Administration's presence.

While TSA has made some progress in assessing risks at airport perimeters and access control security points, the GAO report revealed that the agency had not taken emerging threats or the unique makeup and design of individual airports into consideration.

More and more, we have seen that terrorists are targeting the soft areas in our airport perimeters and within the airport itself. Terrorists are looking for these soft targets. We have seen it in Europe. We have seen these tragedies in Brussels. We have seen it in Istanbul. And, sadly, we have seen it here at home in Fort Lauderdale.

Updating the risk assessment of airport secured with information that reflects the current threat ensures that TSA bases its decision on the latest information, enabling it to focus limited resources to the highest priority risks to airport security.

The TSA's efforts to access, really, our entire airport security around the country, has been, frankly, inadequate. The numbers are startling. From 2009 to 2015, TSA conducted comprehensive risk assessments at only 81 of the 437 commercial airports nationwide--or 19 percent. Some years, this really represented only 3 percent of the airports that were assessed at all.

The Airport Perimeter and Access Control Security Act will make law the recommendations from the independent report and increase safety at airports nationwide. Further, this bill incorporates the input of major airport operators--whose concerns for lack of individualized security strategy we heard from firsthand.

Last year, the Associated Press revealed that there had been at least 268 perimeter security breaches at 31 major U.S. airports. From 2004 to 2015, their investigation found that intruders breached airport fences, on average, every 13 days.

This figure includes a fatal incident, a tragic incident that I investigated before I came to Congress as a district attorney when Delvonte Tisdale, a teenager from North Carolina, snuck onto the tarmac at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and stowed away undetected in a wheel well of a commercial 737 on a flight to Boston.

The figures I mentioned really don't account for the many unreported instances of perimeter breaches, including things like trespassers or people that scale the fences around the perimeter.

We are lucky that all of these individuals did not harbor nefarious intentions. But that does not mitigate the risk posed by such behavior at airports, employees and others, and the passengers and travelers who rely on TSA officers and the airport operators for their security.

As you may recall, this legislation passed the House of Representatives with the support of my colleagues last year and has been a long time coming.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank everyone that worked so hard to make this bill a reality, and to have the success it did last year, and, hopefully, go all the way and get enacted into law this year.

The recent tragedies demonstrated at airports remain a steady target for terrorists and nefarious actors. This bipartisan legislation will close loops in the airport security practices and procedures and bring us closer to ensuring that the access control points and the perimeters of all of the unique designs are as secure as possible.

Passage of H.R. 665 is an important step in the safety of passengers, pilots, and the airport employees.

I thank the chairman of the Transportation Subcommittee again, Mr. Katko; the full committee ranking member, Mr. Thompson; and Representatives Rice, Richmond, and Swalwell for joining me in requesting this report and in supporting this legislation.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 665.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 665) to modernize and enhance airport perimeter and access control security by requiring updated risk assessments and the development of security strategies, 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 materials on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 665, the Airport Perimeter and Access Control Security Act, sponsored by my good friend and colleague, Congressman Keating.

Over the course of the last year, we have seen a disturbing number of attacks against airports and aircrafts overseas and around the world. And in every instance, the integrity of the airport security infrastructure and the insider threat have been of serious concern.

It is critical that we scrutinize the security effectiveness of our Nation's airports and ensure that the public can have confidence that their travels will be safe and secure during the high-threat environment.

This important piece of legislation requires that the TSA's comprehensive risk assessment of perimeter and access control security is more regularly updated and that TSA conducts a sector-wide assessment of airport access control vulnerabilities and mitigation efforts, something TSA has not done across the board since 2012, despite multiple security breaches at airports across the country.

We cannot solely focus on the effectiveness of our passenger screening checkpoints, while allowing lapses in security around the airport perimeter and within the sterile area of airport. A dead bolt on a front door does no good if the back door is left wide open.

As partners on the Transportation and Protective Security Subcommittee, Congressman Keating and I have seen firsthand disturbing vulnerabilities at airports across the United States. I commend his efforts to help enhance security for the American people.

While there may be gridlock and partisan bickering at times in other places here in Washington, on the Homeland Security Committee, we all share an unshakable commitment to ensuring the security of the traveling public because we know that the consequence of failure is too great.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Keating for introducing this important legislation.

I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, before I close, I commend my colleague for his unwavering dedication to this issue. His passion has shown through in the committee hearings and throughout my time with him in Congress and I commend him for it. I look forward to working on this and other issues with him moving forward.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 665.

I yield back the balance of my time.