[scooter2]

Every commercial airport in the country is operated by some sort of "Port Authority" or its equivalent. Why not provide federal grant funding to hire more local (Port) Police Officers and let them conduct airport security? The FAA could establish the standards and let the locals be resposible for enforcement and compliance. I'm definately not in favor of federalizing airport security nor am I in favor of letting private security companies continue with thier minimum wage, poorly trained screeners doing (or not doing) the job.

[DLfromthedesert]

That's exactly what the Republican bill does. IMPROVE Federal standards over what was in place prior to the attacks, but NOT hire federal workers to do the job.

[saradippity]

I have a cost effective,efficient and compassionate solution,given all the givens. Abolish the Fed.Dept of Ed, which does no more than augment our "great candle factory" or in other words the public school system. At this time the whole system is hell bent on melting all children into an amorphous blob and pouring them into one of several different molds so that every one will be perfectly formed to accomplish the objectives of the "candle masters".

Abolishing this department will correct this and put the responsibility back to the local levels where it belongs. Since its institution in the 70's drop out rates have gone up and SAT scores have gone down,to say nothing of the escalating costs of education.

The measure is cost effective because the monies used to fund the DOE can be budgeted to fund the new Dept of Int. Sec..Employees would go from one federal payroll to another at no extra cost to the taxpayers.

It is efficient because all of the employees can be offered transfers to the airport of their choice and the monies usually spent on massive recruiting efforts will be saved,additionally the time spent vetting candidates has already been spent.

It is compassionate because all of those many employees of that overstaffed,useless bureauracy will not be out of work unless they choose to be. Therefore no huge expenditures for unemployment comp etc..

I think this may be an oppurtunity to reorder our priorities and and get a grip. Surely it is almost beyond belief to look at the economy and not recognize a huge crisis looming. Now is the time to get a few birds with one stone. As a safety measure the individual operations will need to be headed up by several military personnel. I think this should fly unless it has too much common sense.

In summary:Abolish the Department of Education and establish the Department of Airport Security.