US House Passes Curbs On Travelers Who Visited Iraq, Iran

It would also require countries participating in the program, which include much of Western Europe, to share information with Washington about terror suspects.

“This will help neutralize the threat from foreign terrorists entering our country”, said House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Zinke was an cosponsor on the legislation; it passed the House with veto-proof, bipartisan majority (407-19-8) and goes to the Senate with the support of the White House. “We will continue to review vulnerabilities to our homeland, working to produce more legislative solutions to keep America safe”. Obama, too, called in his Oval Office address Sunday night for a new look at the fiancée visa. Both bills give the secretary of Homeland Security the authority to take countries out of the waiver system.

But in past years, the program has been used by would-be terrorists, including “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, who boarded a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001 without a visa and attempted to set off a bomb.

The US administration backs a bill that would make it harder for visitors to Iraq, Syria and countries listed as supporting terrorism to travel visa-free to the United States, the State Department said Wednesday.

“Make sure the people traveling into the United States from other countries that have been terrorist hotspots or traveling through there are not able to come without a vetting process”, Noem said. It was started in 1986 to boost tourism and tighten the country’s relationship with close allies. This is not a big change from previous regulations: Travelers from waiver countries were already required to have an e-Passport if the document was issued after October 2006.

All travelers would be checked against Interpol databases.

The bill also requires that from 1 April 2016, all foreign nationals travelling under the Visa Waiver Programme must have an electronic passport that incorporates biographic and biometric information. A different, Senate version of the bill is also in the works and is stricter than the House’s bill as it would prevent anyone who has traveled to Iraq or Syria from participating in the program for the next five years.

The US travel industry is watching the developments on Capital Hill closely.

But not all lawmakers agree the proposed reforms would solve concerns with the waiver program.

“Closing this visa loophole is only part of the solution”. With the overwhelming support the bill received, House Spokesperson John Kirby said on Wednesday they hope that Congress would quickly act to pass the bill.