{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tester.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=4908", "Tester Lands Major Security Upgrades for Helena, Great Falls Airports [press_release]", "2016-12-26", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "MT", "Jon Tester", "T000464", "www.tester.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "(Big Sandy, Mont.) \u2013 Senator Jon Tester today landed major security upgrades for the Helena Regional Airport and Great Falls International Airport to better ensure the safety of passengers flying out of Montana.\nTester, Montana\u2019s only member of the Homeland Security Committee, has received notification that after a year of pressuring the agency, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will be delivering full body scanners to Helena and Great Falls.\u00a0 Currently, the airports only have metal detectors to screen passengers before boarding a plane.\nToday\u2019s announcement comes after several Homeland Security hearings where Senator Tester\u00a0grilled the TSA Administrator\u00a0and demanded the agency deliver full body scanners to Helena and Great Falls airports.\n\u201cWe know that the bad guys will go to the weakest link when they want to inflict harm on our nation,\u201d\u00a0said Tester.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s critically important that we stay tough and ensure our airports are secure so Montana families are kept safe.\u00a0 I was pleased to work closely with folks in Helena and Great Falls on these important national security upgrades.\u201d\nCurrently, the TSA prioritizes installing full body scanners in urban airports, which had \u200eleft the airports\u00a0in Helena\u00a0and Great Falls\u00a0without the most up-to-date security equipment.\u00a0\nTester also\u00a0successfully added an amendment\u00a0to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that was signed into law in July to study the feasibility of installing full body scanners in every airport across the country.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.tester.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=4908"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9409668855369091, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}