Last week, the House passed by 299-128 legislation (H.R.1) to implement many of the
remaining 9/11 Commission recommendations. This vital security measure included a monumental advancement in the long-fought struggle to grant
Transportation Security Officers (TSO) the right to organize.

Since the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created in 2001, a
footnote to the Aviation and Transportation Security Act gave the TSA Administrator
the authority to "employ, appoint, discipline, terminate...[and] establish levels of
compensation and other benefits" for TSOs. It effectively blocked the right of
airport screeners to join a union and paved the way for an inequity in pay and
benefits of TSA employees. H.R. 1 repealed this footnote, giving airport screeners
the same basic rights as other TSA employees.

H.R. 1 also included, among other international initiatives:

• Distributing state homeland security funding based on risk;

• Creating a stand-alone grant program to provide first responders with the type of equipment that allows them to communicate with each other during emergencies;

• Phasing in a requirement of 100 percent inspection of the cargo carried on passenger aircraft over the next three years;

• Phasing in a requirement of 100 percent scanning of U.S.-bound shipping containers over the next five years;

• Quickly accelerating the installation of explosive detection systems for checked baggage at the nation's airports; and

• Improving explosive detection systems at passenger checkpoints at the nation's airports.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and

Governmental Affairs and is currently awaiting action.

Also last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to raise the federal minimum
wage for the first time since 1997. The Fair Minimum Wage Act (H.R. 2) passed by a
315-116 margin.

H.R. 2 will increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the
next two years. The minimum wage in Washington State is currently $7.93.

"Millions of American families have had to get by on $5.15 an hour for the past
decade," said Congressman Adam Smith, an AIS pledge signer. "While I'm pleased that Washington State remains a national
leader on this issue, it was important for the rest of the country to support
workers with a higher federal minimum wage. This is another example of Congress
rolling up our sleeves and getting to work during the first 100 hours of the 110th
Congress."