BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As promised, the House Minority Leader Deck Gephardt -- Dick Gephardt, rather, at the microphone to talk about aviation security in a measure before the House.</s>REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), MINORITY LEADER: Good morning. I want to thank the pilots, flight attendants and members of Congress who are here united in support of strong aviation security for all Americans. The country is on a high state of alert, and the United States is six weeks -- almost seven weeks -- from the largest aviation disaster in our history, but we still, to date, have not passed any legislation to make our people safer when they fly. We've watched Americans, who have felt uncertain and insecure when they pass through security, board the plane and sit in their seats. I've seen, with my own eyes, people in the seats behind me who were forming vigilante committees in case terrorists happened to appear on the flight. I've read stories about people forgetting to check their weapons and screeners who failed to stop them. And I'm baffled. I'm baffled that the House still hasn't brought up, let alone pass, strong security legislation for all Americans. We need to pass a good bill tomorrow and get it to the president.</s>HEMMER: Dick Gephardt, the House Minority Leader, letting out his claim on the bill before the House. We do anticipate a vote tomorrow on aviation security, and once again it should be pointed out there is an awful lot of agreement between the Senate and the House and Republicans and Democrats and the White House as well, but there is one sticking point. And that has to do with the screeners at America's airports. Should they be federal employees, or should they just be supervised by the federal government? The White House says they prefer the latter. Democrats for the large part, for the most part, anyway, in the Senate agreed that indeed they should be federal employees. That's the point that is holding things up at this point. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-MO) Holds Press Conference