mr. speaker , i thank my friend from new york for yielding me the time . 
i also thank the committee on rules for making in order an amendment by myself and the gentleman from florida ( mr. mica ) xz4002730 that will help perfect the federal flight deck officer program . 
many , many pilots are willing to volunteer to undergo rigorous training to certify themselves as federal flight deck officers to become the last line of defense on our planes . 
there can not be an air marshal on every plane . 
we still do not have secondary barriers in the planes . 
there are times when the flight deck door is open . 
there are ongoing threats . 
it is essential to improve that program and i am hopeful members will look favorably upon that amendment later today . 
with that said , i wish that the rule was more inclusive . 
my colleague , the ranking democrat on the subcommittee on aviation , wanted to offer an amendment to mandate that the taxes we are collecting from the traveling public to pay for enhanced security at the airports ; that is , to put in-line explosives detection systems at airports that do not have it across america to find explosives in checked bags , and possibly that same equipment could be used for cargo on those planes , was not allowed . 
it is unfortunate . 
most americans are under the impression that all of their baggage is being screened . 
it is not being effectively screened . 
some of it is being hand searched . 
some of it is being trace searched . 
some of it is being looked at . 
some of it is being loaded on the plane . 
and some of it is going through very sophisticated in-line explosives detection systems , and we have the numbers . 
where those systems exist , we can find threat objects , explosives a very , very high percentage of the time . 
where those systems do not exist , there is a very disturbing lack of detection of test objects , threat objects , explosives . 
we also have a huge and gaping hole at the passenger checkpoint . 
the last wakeup call we are probably ever going to get before the day when planes start falling out of the sky was in russia where two terrorists , women , boarded planes with explosives , we do not know exactly whether they were in their carry-on bags or whether they were wearing suicide belts , but here in the united states of america we are doing nothing to find suicide belts or explosives in bags . 
we are still using 1980s technology at the checkpoints , technology that was thrown out of the united states capitol more than a decade ago as inadequate to the threat , thrown out of the white house and other places . 
yet aviation was attacked and aviation in russia was attacked by what i think , as does the chairman of the committee , is the most likely future threat , which is explosives . 
we need to move ahead with more robust acquisition of that equipment in the near future and this bill does not mandate that . 
i would congratulate the gentleman from california ( mr. cox ) xz4000830 for the first ever authorization . 
it is a good first start . 
remember , the homeland security department started out of chaos . 
the president refused to create a homeland security cabinet-level position or department until one day when an fbi agent was spilling her guts here in washington , d.c. , to a committee and karl rove wrote out the plan on the back of a napkin . 
congress is just starting to make sense of what the department of homeland security will be in the future . 
