US House Passes Bill Restricting Visa Waivers For Some Foreign Travelers

Backed by the White House, the Senate voted by a large majority last night to exclude people who have travelled to the two war-torn countries from its visa waiver programme.

After voting in the House of Representatives, results showed that 407 reps were in favor of the proposal to change the rules of visa-free travel, while 19 opposed to it.

The bill would also require all 38 countries to check travelers against INTERPOL databases to determine whether they have been wanted by law enforcement for terrorist or criminal activity.

The bi-partisan vote to reform the visa waiver program comes in the aftermath of last month’s Paris attacks and the San Bernadino shooting last Friday.

The strong vote in the House could put momentum behind efforts to include changes to the program in the omnibus spending package – a must-pass bill that lawmakers are trying to finalize before government funding expires on Friday. H.R. 158 requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to terminate a country from the Visa Waiver Program if the country does not share counterterrorism data-and doesn’t allow the country back until it complies with the program requirements.

Amid frightening attacks at home and overseas, the House is poised to crack down on visa-free travel to the USA from friendly nations like Belgium and France, aiming to ensure that the Paris attacks won’t be repeated here.

The people who used to be able to use a visa waiver program that would no longer be eligible would have to go through traditional visa approval process.

“We’re supportive of the bipartisan legislation that’s been proposed in the House of Representatives”.

Even backers of the legislation acknowledge it will not eliminate the risk of terrorists with ties to Islamic State or other militant groups entering the U.S.to launch attacks.

All visa waiver countries would be required to issue “e-passports” with biometric information.

The new House bill doesn’t allow Syrian and Iraqi nationals, as well as passport holders who have traveled to Syria, Iraq, Iran or Sudan since March, 2011, to use the visa waiver program.

“The concern is that the so-called foreign fighters from European nations could travel to Syria and Iraq, become radicalized, fight alongside ISIS, return to their homelands in Europe and then fly without a visa to the U.S.”, NPR’s Brian Naylor reports for the NPR Newscast unit.

The travel industry had given their support to the bill authored by Miller.

House lawmakers continued a recent string of bipartisanship on Tuesday by overwhelmingly voting to approve legislation tightening security on travel from visa-waiver countries.