-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: February 28, 2007 1:58:55 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: What's REALLY Important in the GOP's "War on Terror"
"President Bush and his Republican Senate allies will veto a 9/11-
inspired Anti-Terrorism bill if Congress sends it to the White
House with a provision that allows airport security workers to
unionize, a White House spokesman and 36 Republicans said Tuesday."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070228/ap_on_go_co/
congress_security;_ylt=AtKw_AmugJXqak4SBeJkEPHMWM0F
Labor language threatens antiterror bill
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 28, 9:19 AM ET
WASHINGTON - President Bush and his Senate allies will kill a Sept.
11 antiterror bill if Congress sends it to the White House with a
provision to let airport screeners unionize, the White House and 36
Republicans said Tuesday.
"As the legislation currently stands, the president's senior
advisers would recommend that he veto the bill," said White House
spokesman Scott Stanzel.
Senate Republicans swiftly backed up the threat with a pledge by
more than enough senators to block any veto override attempt.
"If the final bill contains such a provision, forcing you to veto
it, we pledge to sustain your veto," they wrote to the president.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., planned to offer an amendment to strip the
provision from the bill.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that allowing
screeners to unionize would impede the department's quick response
to possible threats. Fast redeployment of screeners, such as in
response to Hurricane Rita and the failed London plot to blow up
airliners, cannot wait for negotiations, he said.
Chertoff said screeners are as much on the front lines in the war
against terror as military troops.
"Marines don't collectively bargain over whether they're going to
wind up, you know, being deployed in Anbar province or in Baghdad,"
Chertoff told reporters after a briefing with senators. "We can't
negotiate over terms and conditions of work that goes to the heart
of our ability to move rapidly in order to deal with the threats
that are emerging."
Other federal employees have collective bargaining and whistle-
blower protection rights.
Chertoff's reasoning, according to the American Federation of
Government Employees, is "an insult to the hundreds of thousands of
dedicated public safety officers with collective bargaining rights
-- from border patrol agents to firefighters to the Capitol Hill
police," said John Gage, president of the federation.
The White House made its displeasure with the union provision clear
before the House passed it as part of its Homeland Security bill.
Sen. Susan Collins said Chertoff told her that a statement Thursday
would include an explicit veto threat.
Casting the provision as a deal-killer would flex Bush's political
muscle with the new, Democratic-led Congress on the old
battleground of labor rights. It also could throw an obstacle into
talks over how to debate and pass the recommendations of the Sept.
11 Commission.
For now, senators are eager to follow the House and pass a bill
enacting the commission's recommendations to tighten the nation's
security. The House bill also includes a provision that would let
TSA screeners bargain collectively.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Republican leader
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had reached a tentative agreement
Tuesday to conduct the debate over the next 10 days without the
distraction of Iraq.
The sense of urgency on the 9/11 recommendations was conveyed to
both leaders in a letter Tuesday from families of those killed in
the terrorist attacks on that day in 2001.
"This legislation is far too important to be politicized by
controversial amendments and debate, particularly those relating to
Iraq," wrote Carol Ashley and Mary Fetchet of the Voices of
September 11th.
Reid and McConnell said the Iraq debate would wait for next month,
after passage of the 9/11 bill. The arrangement would allow the
Senate to debate legislation bolstering anti-terrorism security
measures on railroads and airlines without being distracted by the
furor over President Bush's buildup of troops in Iraq.
"We have got to finish this bill," Reid, D-Nev., said as he opened
the Senate session. He read parts of a letter from relatives of
people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks asking the
Senate to consider the legislation "without complications regarding
Iraq."
Even minus an Iraq debate, provisions in the anti-terrorism bill or
planned amendments make the legislation contentious.
In addition to its opposition to the TSA provision, the White House
also opposes an amendment that would let states delay adopting
[National ID] drivers' licenses.
Collins said Chertoff delivered a staunch defense of the
administration's position during the GOP caucus' weekly policy
lunch Tuesday. She said she nonetheless plans to try to attach an
amendment that would delay requirements for states to adopt
national drivers license standards.
Many states have complained about the cost of the program, and
civil libertarians are concerned about privacy issues.
Other measures in the bill would improve rail and aviation
security, provide funds for state and local emergency
communications systems, improve intelligence sharing between
federal, state and local officials, and expand a visa waiver
benefit for favored countries.
The bill is S.4
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