December 16, 2009
from FOX News
President Signs Bill That Allows Gun-Slinging AMTRAK
Passengers to be Locked in Boxes
Chad Pergram
Harry Houdini made a career escaping from locked boxes. So did David Copperfield
and Doug Henning.
And now you can add AMTRAK passengers packing heat in their luggage to that list
of escape artists.
It sounds absurd. But President Obama actually signed a bill into law Wednesday
that would require passengers who carry firearms aboard AMTRAK be locked in
boxes for their journey.
It’s a mistake. But for now, the clerical error is the law of the land.
Earlier this week, Congress sent the president a massive spending bill that
funded dozens of federal departments. Tucked into the transportation section of
the legislation are safety requirements for AMTRAK customers who carry firearms
on board the government-backed train system. The bill Congress passed mandates
that passengers with firearms declare they have weapons with them in advance and
stow them in locked boxes while on the train.
The bill text was correct when the House approved the legislation last week and
the Senate followed suit Sunday. But somewhere in between, the language that
referred to putting the guns in locked boxes morphed into stuffing “passengers”
into locked boxes.
Aides to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) became aware of the problem Wednesday
night as the House voted on its final slate of bills for the year. Pelosi’s
staff tried to negotiate with Republican aides to see if they would agree to
change the text of the bill without revoting the entire piece of legislation.
But it was all for naught as Mr. Obama had already signed the measure into law.
It’s clear the typo alters the intent of the legislation. But no one quite knows
the origin of the mistake.
Senior Congressional sources familiar with the error suggested the problem may
have been introduced in the “enrolling” process of bills. Once both the House
and Senate approve the final version of a bill, the text of the legislation is
sent to an “enrolling clerk” who actually copies the bill onto parchment paper.
The parchment version of the package is then sent to the White House for the
president to sign into law.
The misfire is fixable. But probably not until early next year. The House late
Wednesday completed what it expects to be its final session of the year. The
Senate remains in session debating health care reform. But both the House and
Senate would have to agree to a technical correction of the text that missed its
mark. And, the law states that AMTRAK has six months to implement the policy.
TSA - Approved Lockable Container for Armed AMTRAK Passengers