WASHINGTON -- Congress is on a fast track toward a vote that could
make permanent the 12-year-old Visa Waiver Pilot Program, which
permits travelers from 29 qualifying countries to visit the U.S.
for up to 90 days without a visitor visa.
Lawmakers are racing against time to send a visa bill to
President Clinton before the program expires on April 30. With only
days to go, the House was poised to vote on a bill (H.R. 3767) that
would bolster and permanently authorize the visa program.
The bill cleared the House Judiciary Committee by voice vote on
April 4. The bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas),
chairman of the House subcommittee on immigration, and Rep. Sheila
Jackson Lee (D-Texas), ranking Democrat on the subcommittee.
Meanwhile, a companion bill, the Travel, Tourism and Jobs
Preservation Act (S. 2367), co-sponsored by Sen. Spencer Abraham
(R-Mich.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), both members of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, was introduced April 5. The Senate
Judiciary Committee could mark up the bill in a matter of days.
"The time has come to make the Visa Waiver Pilot Program
permanent," said Abraham when he introduced the bill on the Senate
floor. "Its status is no longer truly experimental."
Indeed, the visa waiver effort has never come so far so
fast.
"This is a very positive movement," said Richard Webster,
director of legislative affairs for the Travel Industry Association
of America, which has lobbied to make the program permanent for
more than a decade.
"Having passage [of H.R. 3767] by the full Judiciary Committee
in the House is tantamount to getting it passed by the full
House."
Getting the House Judiciary Committee behind the program has
made the difference this year, Webster said. Previously, Smith had
opposed attempts to make the visa program permanent, citing
overstay rates of inbound travelers using visitor visas and
national security concerns.
But the Smith-Jackson Lee bill tweaked the visa waiver program
to tighten several security controls. For instance, the bill would
require inbound visitors to possess valid, machine-readable
passports by Oct. 1, 2002, and it establishes an automated
electronic database that would contain information about the
inbound traveler's identity.
Overall, the visa waiver program has been credited with
bolstering both the U.S. inbound and outbound travel market as well
as the overall economy. Some 17 million inbound travelers visit the
U.S. annually under the program.
Testifying before the House immigration subcommittee on Feb. 10,
Mary Ryan, assistant secretary at the State Department, said that
inbound tourism "directly sustained 1 million jobs for working
Americans and indirectly supported millions more."
Nevertheless, the program has been the source of some
controversy. The State Department has objected to adding certain
countries to the list of visa waiver program participants due to
concerns over use of forged or stolen passports. And still others
have raised discrimination concerns.
For instance, during markup of the Smith-Jackson Lee bill, Rep.
John Conyers (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Judiciary
Committee, introduced an amendment that would have established a
study to determine whether the program discriminates against
inbound travelers, particularly those from Africa.
Of the 29 countries -- Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria,
Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland,
Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and Uruguay --
admitted to the program, none are on the African continent. The
amendment was defeated.
But it appears as if there is little to prevent Congress from
finally making the long-running pilot program permanent.
"This is going to happen," said a Smith spokesman. "I have not
heard any concern expressed about our ability to get this done in
time to make sure the program is reauthorized permanently."