US Passes Bill Relating To Visa Waiver Program

The bill was approved on a 407 to 19 vote.

That program allows people from 38 countries to visit the USA without visas.

The House of Representatives passed legislation that would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen the USA visa waiver program.

Other bills and amendments include restrictions on the resettlement of Syrian refugees, intensified passenger inspections and other security measures at airports, renewal of USA intelligence programs where legislative authority has lapsed (or where lawsuits have placed obstacles), expanded powers for the Department of Homeland Security, and banning the purchase of certain weapons by people who have been put on the federal no-fly watch list. The bill is expected to be included in a spending bill later this week and could become law by the end of the year.

Also supporting the bill was Congressman Ted Poe (R-Humble), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Terrorism Subcommittee.

It has been estimated that 20 million visitors enter the United States a year under the program and stay for 90 days.

The measure would require countries participating in the visa waiver program to check travelers against Interpol databases to determine whether they are wanted by law-enforcement agencies based on ties to terrorism or criminal activity.

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 threat of an extremist traveling from a visa waiver country to the United States is a real concern and must be addressed”.

West Michigan lawmakers are now responding to the legislation. In the Senate, Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California and Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona have offered their own visa waiver bill, but their legislation is opposed by the travel industry because of requirements for biometric screening that industry officials fear could be hard to enact.

“The 9/11 Commission said that ‘for terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons.’ I couldn’t agree more”, said Subcommittee Chairman Miller.

“It’s critically important that we make sure that if there has been that kind of travel overseas that we do background checks and we make sure that we know who is coming into the United States in order to keep us safe”, Noem said.

The Senate may consider the bill as well although Republican leaders have not said when that would occur.