|
Friday, 02 August 2002 |
|
Senate Panel Cleared to Vote on Arming Pilots
July 31, 2002 04:32 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supporters of arming U.S. airline pilots said on Wednesday that prospects were brighter for getting legislation passed this year after the idea's chief opponent in the Senate said he would allow a committee vote.
A spokesman for Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, one of the chief co-sponsors of a plan to arm pilots, said he would push for committee action in September, after the chamber returns from its summer recess, with the hope of getting the entire Senate to approve the measure soon afterward.
"We intend to ask for a markup (committee) hearing in September. Our feeling is that this is going to pass easily out of committee and survive a vote on the floor," said Eric Bovim, Burns' spokesman.
South Carolina Democrat Ernest Hollings, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee through which the pilot-arming proposal must pass, removed a potential obstacle on Tuesday when he said he would not stand in the way of a committee vote on the plan.
The House of Representatives has already voted to let pilots carry guns, although the Bush administration said two months ago it was opposed to the idea. However, last week Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said he had asked his new security chief to study the possibility.
MACHETES NEXT?
Earlier this year, Hollings mocked the idea of giving guns to pilots, saying passengers might be armed with machetes next. But support has been building both in and out of his committee for the proposal, which has 24 co-sponsors in the Senate.
Hollings' spokesman Andy Davis said the senator still thought arming pilots was a "terrible idea," and believed the money could be better spent reinforcing cockpit doors, but that he would not block a committee vote.
The House in July passed legislation that would allow all 70,000 pilots of U.S. commercial airplanes to carry guns on a voluntary basis. Supporters said it was necessary to secure the cockpit and prevent hijackings of the kind that happened last Sept. 11.
Two months ago, the Bush administration announced it opposed the idea, and Mineta said last week that a plan like the House had approved could be very expensive, costing $850 million to establish and over $250 million a year to carry out.
However, Mineta also said that while he was personally opposed to giving pilots lethal force, he had asked his new security chief to explore options to arm pilots with guns.
|
