Legislation: House to Vote on Airport Security Measure Tomorrow.

A crucial vote scheduled in the House tomorrow that will determine if security screeners will be federal employees will also determine how much flexibility airports will have in using existing federal programs to pay for increased security.

The House was originally set to vote today on a bill that was recently introduced by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, but it appears that House leaders will push the vote back until tomorrow.

The House is scheduled to vote first on whether to proceed with the Young bill, which discourages federalizing passenger and luggage screeners, or adopt the House Democrats' version of the Senate-passed bill, which requires federal screeners.

"The substitute that we're going to offer is basically the Senate bill," said a spokesman for James L. Oberstar, ranking member of the committee.

Under the Senate bill, approved on a 100-to-0 vote earlier this month, 28,000 federal employees would be hired by the Department of Justice to perform screening duties at airports. That bill also would allow airports, for one year, to use federal grants received through the Federal Aviation Administration's airport improvement program to cover certain law enforcement costs, such as salaries.

Under current law, AIP funds and PFCs can only be used for capital costs.

The Young bill would allow smaller airports to use AIP grants and passengers facility ...