President Bush urged Congress on Tuesday to pass an aviation security bill as soon as possible, his spokesman said as legislation that passed the Senate nearly two weeks ago stayed grounded in the House of Representatives. 
The authors of the Senate version denounced the latest delays in the House, with some Democratic senators charging that top House Republicans were postponing a decision for political and ideological reasons. 
"This is the worst kind of hoax," Sen. John Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, said of the delay in House action. "To have a few people holding this up in the House because they know they can't win if it comes to a vote, disgusts me." 
The House Republican leadership replied that their version of an aviation security bill would come to the floor later this week or next. 
Legislation to make airports and airplanes safer has been considered a top priority by many members of Congress since the attacks on Washington and New York on Sept 11. 
But an argument over whether to make baggage screeners government workers has slowed progress in both chambers. 
At the White House, Bush told congressional leaders in a morning meeting that he wanted Congress to produce a bill he can sign "as quickly as possible" and said he was willing to work with them on it, spokesman Ari Fleischer said. 
"The president made very clear in the meeting this morning that he hopes that the House will be able to take up legislation on aviation security. The Senate has done it; he hopes the House will be able to do it as well," Fleischer said. 
He said Bush had invited members of the House to meet him to resolve the baggage screeners issue "and that way legislation can be sent to the president that he can sign." 
Bush has "a lot of concerns" about whether making all the screeners government employees is the most effective way to proceed, Fleischer said, but added that the president still considered this "an open issue." 
"The president is going to work hard with Congress on that," Fleischer said. 
The latest difficulty in the House, Republican leader Richard Armey said, was to find space for the Transportation Committee to meet and produce the House Republican version of the bill's final language -- a process known as "markup." 
The House and Senate have been shut out of their office buildings for six days while an environmental sweep goes on, checking for possible anthrax contamination. 
"Our most immediate problem now is finding a quick opportunity for the chairman to find a space and pull his committee together to complete that markup," Armey said. 
He said Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young, the chairman of the committee, would produce a bill "that basically covers all the ground that is desired by both Republicans and Democrats." 
But while the Senate version requires airport screeners to be government employees, the House version would leave this up to the president, Armey said. "That should be an acceptable option for anyone," he declared. 
HALF A HAIRCUT? 
But Sen. Ernest Hollings, the South Carolina Democrat who co-authored the Senate version of the airport security legislation, scoffed at the idea of compromise on the question of making baggage screeners government employees. 
"You can't give us half a haircut here," Hollings said. 
Armey asserted that it was Democratic insistence on making the baggage screeners government workers -- and thus union employees -- that had been the real holdup. The House Republicans, he said, were worried that this would make it much more difficult to fire employees for malfeasance. 
But leading Republicans have admitted that they may not have the votes in the House for their version. Armey said that when the bill did come to the House floor, the Democrats would have a chance to make an amendment substituting their version.