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Source: Reuters -
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A key US senator said that he supported hiking aviation security
fees as authorities boost security after the failed attempt to bomb
a US commercial airliner on Christmas Day.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
Chairman Joe Lieberman said that the Department of Homeland
Security's budget may not keep pace with inflation, which could
inhibit efforts to thwart terrorism threats.
Boosting aviation security fees will help fund air industry
security, he said.
"For that reason, I will support a request to increase aviation
fees to benefit the budget of homeland security," Lieberman said at
a hearing on the department's fiscal 2011 budget.
Last December, a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried to
blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with a bomb hidden in
his clothing, but it failed to go off completely and he was tackled
and subdued by passengers.
That failed attempt led the Obama administration to boost airport
security dramatically, and included in its fiscal 2011 budget
additional money for advanced-imaging body scanners that could
detect bombs hidden in clothing.
The Department of Homeland Security plans to deploy hundreds of the
machines this year with the goal of having 1,000 of them operating
by 2011.
One complaint from the airline industry is the cost of securing
planes and screening passengers.
