Back in my high school debating days, this was the principle that the affirmative side (the one proposing a solution to a problem) did not have to worry about whether, for example, Congress would ever pass such a law. They only had to worry about whether it would actually do the desired job.
Now that Congress has passed its Airport Security Bill, they are leaving it up to the airports and the DOT to figure out how to actually meet its provisions, in particular how to increase the number of baggage screening machines to screen all pieces of luggage.
Airport, airline and federal officials were wondering Monday how to implement a new federal requirement to create within 60 days a checked-bag screening system capable of handling DIA’s 38 million bags a year. “That’s very, very ambitious,” said Amy Bourgeron, deputy manager for marketing and public relations for Denver International Airport. Before the Sept. 11 attacks, the federal government planned to have such screening in place by 2015, she said. “You’ve accelerated a 14-year schedule into 60 days.”
[…]The law applies to all U.S. airports and requires that bomb-detection equipment be installed by Dec. 31, 2002. … DIA said Monday that it has only three of the $1 million bomb-detection machines — and it needs 40 more.
The law also says that within 60 days all bags must be screened by some combination of hand-checking, dog-sniffing, technology or bag-matching.
Of course, the idea that this was a “14-year schedule” was an artificial one as well, as it allowed airports (and the airlines that support them) a leisurely schedule to implement it, always hoping that Congress would change its mind or that newer, cheaper technology would appear in the meantime.
The fact is, this is doable, at least in large part. The question is, will airports actually make an effort to meet the schedule — even if they don’t quite make it? Or will they whine and complain and drag their feet, hoping that they’ll get extension after extension (as the auto makers do whenever Congress decides to increase fleet mileage)?