On Nov. 1, the House of Representatives approved a bill proposed by President Bush to put the government in charge of airport security personnel, without turning the 28,000 worker into federal workers, the New York Times reports.
President Bush told the members of the House that he would need flexibility to make air travel safe for passengers. Dick Armey, representative of Texas, urged the other members to back the president’s bill. “Reject this intrusion of federal government mandates,” said majority leader Armey. “Put your confidence in the president.”
The House approved the bill by a vote of 286 to 139.
With New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani announcing cutbacks of the number of rescuers at Ground Zero, thousands of firefighters came together in protest on Nov. 2.
The group announced their opinions in front of City Hall, where police in riot gear tried to keep them at bay.
Giuliani cited worker safety as his reason for the cutbacks. He explained that he did not want more than 48 workers at the site at one time, 24 firefighters and 24 policemen.
According to MSNBC.com, the firefighter’s union said that it feared that the recovery operation would be turned into a “full-time construction scoop-and-dump operation.”