House Delivers Blow to Bush Plan to Hike Security Fees by $1.5B

But the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security called the passage of H.R. 1817 a "half-hearted effort." Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said the bill is a "weak attempt" to fully protect the nation. He introduced a Democratic substitute bill that would have provided for $6.9 billion more in funding than the president's budget. Included in his substitute measure was a provision to provide $115 million to study whether commercial aircraft could be protected from shoulder-fired missiles through ground-based technology. The development of a ground-based system to protect airplanes from terrorist attacks could save the airline industry billions of dollars (ABR, May 9).

In a related development, Sen. Collins sent a letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff on May 25 urging him to establish a system to prescreen international passengers before they board flights. The letter also was signed by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the committee.

"In recent weeks, two international flights have been diverted to Bangor, Maine, as a result of passenger information matching an individual record on the No Fly List," the letter said. "We are sure you would agree that these incidents demonstrate the current passenger prescreening system is not working. Not only does it create a serious security vulnerability, but it imposes tremendous costs on air carriers, taxes government resources, inconveniences hundreds of passengers, and has a ripple effect on the travel and tourism industry."

Intelligence reform sponsored by Collins and Lieberman, signed into law last December, directed DHS to establish a passenger prescreening system.