This program was killed by the House, which isn't just controlled by the Republicans, in the House, unlike the Senate, the minority party has NO POWER WHATSOEVER. That means this was a Republican buzzkill, 100%.
From AP:
Efforts to train thousands of federal agents to protect commercial flights during heightened terror alerts were quietly abandoned more than a year ago because Congress objected to the cost, government investigators said Tuesday.The AP article didn't make clear who in Congress killed the program, so I looked up the actual GAO report that was released today about this issue. It makes clear it was the House Appropriations Committee, which is run 100 percent by the GOP.
This, from the GAO report:
In October 2004, ICE suspended its cross-training efforts in response to congressional concerns that the cross-training was an ineffective use of resources and training. Specifically, in a June 2004 House Appropriations Committee report, the Committee expressed concerns regarding how ICE agents would maintain their skills as federal air marshals since they did not regularly perform federal air marshal duties. The Committee directed that each cross-trained ICE agent fly missions with a federal air marshal for a minimum of 24 hours per quarter, beginning October 1, 2004. However, in the October 2004 report that accompanied the fiscal year 2005 DHS Appropriations Act, the Conference Committee suggested that the cross-training provided to ICE agents was an ineffective use of resources. The Committee further suggested that the training of ICE agents to serve as federal air marshals in a surge capacity be discontinued. In response, DHS suspended its cross-training efforts at that time.Osama can breathe a little easier knowing the Republicans are doing his work for him.
