Congress Rebuffs White House Plan To Boost Airline Security Fees

The legislation is much improved over the budget request of the Bush administration in many respects, including aviation security, according to Obey. "But, due to the nation's fiscal mess exacerbated by the costs of war and tax cuts to millionaires, critical homeland security vulnerabilities will continue to go unaddressed," Obey said.

Another Democrat on the committee, Rep. Martin Olav Sabo (D-Minn.), shares many of Obey's views about the legislation. Sabo strongly supports the provision penalizing TSA for non-compliance with the law to increase air cargo screening threefold. "This is still a critical security weakness, and the TSA needs to get down to business to address it," he said.