DAVID FIELD WASHINGTON
The door to any more Congressional handouts seems well and truly locked after Democrats won a battle on a federal baggage screening force.
Emotions are running so high on Capitol Hill that there is no way the airlines will go back for a second helping of bail-out. After all, it is even a dangerous place for the Republicans who are nominally in charge of the House of Representatives and the White House.
That at least is the sentiment of House Transportation Committee chairman Don Young, the blunt Alaskan who spearheaded the Bush Administration's position and supported George Bush in the biggest airline battle yet - the airport security bill. Bush wanted to keep baggage screening and airport security a private function out of the hands of a newly created class of state employees, and Young had argued that creating 28,000 federal jobs would not catch terrorists and was creeping big government.
The Democrat-controlled Senate wanted to establish a new federal bureau of bag-checking and, as the battle raged, Democrats scored points with pronouncements that they were "putting people first", and would continue to do so until the Republicans caved in.
And so they did, as Young found as he heard White House Chief of Staff Andy Card announce the president's willingness to sign a security bill, any security bill - just so long as the House and the Senate would compromise on one soon. Suddenly he found himself "hung out to dry" by his own party.
But Bush had little choice. Attempts to preserve the private enterprise approach foundered on repeated mistakes by private companies such as Argenbright Security. Even a carefully orchestrated "reform" by Argenbright Security failed to assuage sceptics. The security company, a unit of UK-based Securicor, announced a boardroom shakeup about 13 minutes after Republican Tom DeLay had called for exactly such an action.
Within days, the Republican defence crumbled, and then, after the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, the Democratic approach was victorious.
After this, it seems unlikely that any industry from airlines to airports to insurers will seek much of a handout from Congress. There, the doors remain open to putting people first, especially if they are likely Democratic voters and union supporters.
Source: Airline Business
