{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/house-adopts-tipton-amendment-reduce-delays-rural-airports", "House Adopts Tipton Amendment to Reduce Delays at Rural Airports", "2013-06-05", "2013", "2013-06", "Republican", "House", "CO", "Scott Tipton", "T000470", "tipton.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved an amendment offered by Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) to reduce delays at rural airports.\nThe amendment would cut $4 million from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) budget, and redirect those resources to replace equipment at small and rural airports that have had important passenger screening devices removed as a result of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Modernization Act resulting in unnecessary delays and intrusions. The funds being redirected from TSA to improve passenger screening at small airports are from its administrative budget, and as such do not impact passenger security.\n\u201cPassengers into rural airports in my district including Yampa Valley, Montrose, Gunnison and Durango, have been impacted by unnecessary delays and intrusions because of the removal of security screening devices that were sent to larger airports,\u201d said Tipton. \u201cTSA\u2019s implication that security checkpoints at small and rural airports are somehow less critical is inaccurate. Once passengers clear screening at small and rural airports they typically do not receive additional screening for connecting flights at other, potentially larger, airports.\nThe amendment will assist with reducing unnecessary delays for passengers at small and rural airports by providing funding to speed up the replacement of security equipment removed by TSA.\u201d\nThe FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 required the use of Automated Target Recognition (ATR) scanners, or \u201cgumby scanners\u201d at all airports by June 1, 2012. TSA\u2019s interpretation and implementation of the law has caused numerous problems for passengers traveling from small and rural airports throughout the country. One of TSA\u2019s manufacturers who provided equipment for passenger screening could not comply with the changes in the law and provide the new equipment. As a result, TSA decided to remove 174 of these noncompliant machines throughout the country. Rather than waiting for funding for new machines or finding alternative ways to fix this problem TSA made the arbitrary decision to take compliant scanners from small and rural airports throughout the country and install them in larger airports that lost their noncompliant scanners.\u00a0 This has resulted in delays at small airports where pat-downs and other less effective measures have had to take the place of the equipment that has yet to be replaced.\nWatch Congressman Tipton\u2019s floor speech here and read the transcript here.", 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": ["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/house-adopts-tipton-amendment-reduce-delays-rural-airports"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.927208922803402, "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"}