9/11 families eager for completion of security bill
Due in part to their pressure, House and Senate staffers finally have started talks on the measure.
Family members of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and former members of the commission that investigated those attacks called on Congress on Wednesday to quickly finish a major bill to improve the nation's security.
Due in part to their pressure, House and Senate staffers finally have started talks on the legislation, which aims to implement unfulfilled recommendations of the commission that investigated the attacks.
Family members and commissioners said they were told by staff that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have a goal of sending final legislation to President Bush by the end of May. Family members said they became frustrated that Congress has yet to conference the so-called 9/11 bill, prompting them to return to the nation's Capitol last week to meet with congressional leaders.
"Lately we started getting impatient for the next step, and so last week we came to Washington and we figured out that if we wanted to get the ball rolling, we were going to have to give it a kick," said Beverly Eckert, whose husband was killed in the attacks. "When we were making our rounds, we heard from a number of people that we need to be patient, and we respectfully had to disagree with that because what we think what's really needed here is a sense of urgency."
House and Senate aides confirmed that pre-conference negotiations on the bill have started.
Family members, joined by former Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., and former Navy Secretary John Lehman -- both of whom served on the 9/11 Commission -- urged Congress to complete the bill.
"We have goals in mind right now. This 30 days is a goal," Roemer said. "But we've not insisted on any deadline because we want the process to work and work well. If this meanders into the summertime, I think you'll see some growing impatience."
White House advisers, however, have said they would recommend a veto of the bill if it includes a provision giving collective-bargaining rights to federal airport screeners. Both bills currently include the provision, even though it was not a recommendation of the commission.
"It's in both bills, so clearly it seems like it's going to be in the final bill and we can only urge the president not to veto it," Eckert said.
Roemer said the other security provisions, especially related to stopping the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, make it too important to veto over collective bargaining. They said they are prepared to put public pressure on Bush to sign the bill.
The family members said Congress also should appropriate the necessary funding for provisions in the bill, which would authorize billions of dollars in new spending.
The family members acknowledged that the 9/11 bill does not address a key recommendation of the commission: further reforming congressional oversight of homeland security and intelligence. Indeed, they said staff told them that jurisdictional issues have complicated talks on the bill.