In our suggestions to Congress on how to stimulate the economy, AH&LA recommended that Congress set up a temporary fund to promote travel within the U.S. and encourage international visitors to come to America.

As a result, last Thursday, Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) introduced The American Travel Promotion Act. The bill would provide $100 million to states to promote travel and tourism. The funds would be distributed over a nine-month period based upon each state�s economic dependence on travel and tourism, with a minimum of $100,000 going to each state. 

To achieve this, a new bureaucracy need not be created; states already have begun marketing efforts. A program disbursing federal matching funds to such entities would significantly leverage these efforts. AH&LA was one of a small group that worked with Rep. Foley to craft this legislation.

Also, on Friday, Congress passed an airline security package that would federalize all baggage screeners, mandate the inspection of all luggage for weapons and explosive devices, strengthen cockpit doors, and place federal sky marshals on flights. President Bush signed the bill yesterday here in Washington at a formal ceremony at Reagan National Airport.

The bill, in making all baggage screeners government employees, would create 28,000 new federal jobs. The bill would require these federal baggage handlers to be U.S. citizens without criminal records. It would also build a new agency within the Department of Transportation that would oversee aviation security.

Hopefully this plan will help restore consumer confidence and encourage people to return to flying.

In related news, President George W. Bush will appear in his first-ever TV advertisement encouraging Americans to start traveling again and see America. Part of a projected $20 million domestic and international advertising campaign organized under the banner of the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), the ads are part of a broad Travel Industry Recovery Campaign and are funded by voluntary contributions from every segment of the U.S. travel and tourism Industry. The U.S. travel industry hopes the ads will help Americans feel more confident about traveling. A second version of the ads was created to encourage international travelers to visit the USA. President Bush appears twice in the :30 second TV spots encouraging people to begin traveling again as a way of bringing their lives back to normalcy after the terrorist attacks of September 11. It features taped segments of the President speaking about the need for Americans to get on with their lives by traveling and seeing America. For a preview of the ad visit the TIA home page at www.tia.org. 

Another important activity of ours last week was compiling an analysis of The Anti-Terrorism Act. The Act is a 242-page statute granting law enforcement officials extremely broad rights to investigate potential terrorist threats and broad rights to shut those operations down.

With respect to hotels and hotel companies, there are several provisions that offer guidance to the industry when faced with legitimate investigative requests. These provisions of the law should serve to remove the discomfort hoteliers feel when approached by the FBI with requests to obtain information. If the information sought is anything more than registration records, the hotel should ask for a warrant or a subpoena without a guilty conscience, since the law makes it fairly easy for the FBI to get such documents processed expeditiously without compromising its investigations.

Please visit our Web site at www.ahla.com and click on the special section on �The Hotel Industry Responds� to view the governmental affairs Advisory that gives a detailed analysis of The Anti-Terrorism Act.

In keeping with the hard work AH&LA�s governmental affairs department has been undertaking, I am happy to announce that Influence, a biweekly publication on lobbying and public policy advocacy, has ranked AH&LA�s Jack Connors, executive vice president for governmental affairs, as one of Washington�s top trade association lobbyists. Influence interviewed dozens of congressional staffers and lobbyists to create the list. 

Finally, I want to personally wish all of you a safe and pleasant Thanksgiving holiday. This uniquely American celebration will no doubt be especially thoughtful this year as we give thanks for our country and its vigilant fight for freedom throughout the world.

Thank you and God bless America, 

Joseph A. McInerney, CHA