Gold9472
12-13-2006, 09:40 AM
Senators push Bush visa-free law
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/usa/features/article_1232466.php/Senators_push_Bush_visa-free_law
By Shaun Waterman Dec 12, 2006, 16:30 GMT
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- In the waning hours of Congress last week, lawmakers introduced a bill to implement President Bush`s promised expansion of visa-free travel for U.S. allies.
The Secure Travel and Counter-terrorism Partnership Bill was introduced by senior senators of both parties and both committees of jurisdiction -- Foreign Relations and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Sens. George Voinovich, R-Ohio; Richard Lugar, R-Indiana; Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii; and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., are among the original co-sponsors.
The bill gives the secretaries of state and homeland security one year to establish a pilot program for up to five U.S. allies who would not normally be eligible to participate in the Visa Waiver Program to join it.
Under the existing program, citizens of the 27 participating nations can visit the United States for business or pleasure for up to three months without a visa. But many countries, especially U.S. allies in the former Soviet bloc, feel unjustly excluded, and last month President Bush promised to work with them to expand the program to other nations who cooperated with the United States in its war on terrorism.
The proposed law gives wide latitude to Homeland Security and State Department officials to negotiate deals with candidates for the pilot, which will allow countries not meeting the existing criteria for visa-free travel to be admitted to the program for a three-year probationary period if they meet certain security standards.
Voinovich said candidates would also have to implement U.S.-approved security plans for better information-sharing on lost and stolen passports and criminal and terrorist watch-lists; and higher standards for document and airport security.
As part of the plan, these new, higher security standards would also eventually be applied to existing Visa Waiver Program nations, too.
'Enhancing the security of the whole program is the key political selling point' for reform, said a Voinovich aide. 'You can`t expect the American people to support (an expansion of the program) if you can`t promise the highest standards' of security.
Under the bill, officials will have to 'certify that the country is cooperative on counter-terrorism and does not pose a security or law enforcement threat to the United States,' Voinovich said on the Senate floor last week.
He said candidate countries 'would be required to conclude new agreements with the United States to further strengthen cooperation on counter-terrorism and improve information-sharing about critical security issues.'
The Voinovich aide said the cooperation and information-sharing envisaged would be designed to enable U.S. agencies to 'track the shady characters who might want to come to the United States (from the candidate countries) more closely.'
The bill would also give officials a year to draw up a plan for an ambitious program of so-called electronic pre-clearance, an Internet-based visa-lite system whereby travelers could get cleared against terrorist and other watch-lists before traveling to the United States.
Supporters of reform say the criteria for the existing Visa Waiver Program were drawn before Sept. 11, 2001, and reflect a very different global environment. The standards are mainly concerned with economic factors and potential illegal migration, rather than security.
Indeed, the only restriction on the discretion the proposed law affords officials is that they cannot deny a country a place in the pilot scheme merely because its visa refusal rate -- one of the metrics that reformers say is outdated in the post-Sept. 11 environment.
'By limiting travel to the United States,' especially from friendly nations, Voinovich said, 'we are risking a loss of influence with the future leaders of our closest allies.'
Indeed the failure to expand the program has caused friction with U.S. allies, especially in the European Union. Fifteen of the 25 EU member states are in the Visa Waiver Program, but U.S. citizens can travel to any EU member country visa-free.
The demand from EU states like Poland, Estonia and Latvia -- where Bush first pledged to widen the program, on the fringes of the NATO summit in Riga last month -- for reciprocity on visa-free travel has become clamorous.
Although U.S. officials have said they are working with candidate countries and have touted so-called road-maps to program compliance, no additional countries have been admitted since Sept. 11, 2001, and European impatience is growing palpable.
The current logjam in the program 'risk(s) marginalizing some of our closest allies in the war on terror and losing the hearts and minds of their future leaders and citizens,' said Voinovich.
European officials have made few public comments about the proposal. They are weighing what is 'regarded as a positive step,' said one, but 'waiting to read the fine print' of any legislative proposal.
The official said the ball was 'very much in the U.S. court,' and the EU would be watching developments in the new Congress with interest.
In the past, House Republicans and some senators of both parties have resisted administration efforts to push back deadlines for countries in the program to adopt security measures, and their opposition made any expansion of the program a political non-starter.
Some observers have suggested that, with Democrats now in control of Congress, the administration might have more leeway on the issue, and official said they are optimistic about the prospects for reform.
The bill will have to be re-introduced in the next Congress, which the Voinovich aide said he intended to do.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/usa/features/article_1232466.php/Senators_push_Bush_visa-free_law
By Shaun Waterman Dec 12, 2006, 16:30 GMT
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- In the waning hours of Congress last week, lawmakers introduced a bill to implement President Bush`s promised expansion of visa-free travel for U.S. allies.
The Secure Travel and Counter-terrorism Partnership Bill was introduced by senior senators of both parties and both committees of jurisdiction -- Foreign Relations and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Sens. George Voinovich, R-Ohio; Richard Lugar, R-Indiana; Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii; and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., are among the original co-sponsors.
The bill gives the secretaries of state and homeland security one year to establish a pilot program for up to five U.S. allies who would not normally be eligible to participate in the Visa Waiver Program to join it.
Under the existing program, citizens of the 27 participating nations can visit the United States for business or pleasure for up to three months without a visa. But many countries, especially U.S. allies in the former Soviet bloc, feel unjustly excluded, and last month President Bush promised to work with them to expand the program to other nations who cooperated with the United States in its war on terrorism.
The proposed law gives wide latitude to Homeland Security and State Department officials to negotiate deals with candidates for the pilot, which will allow countries not meeting the existing criteria for visa-free travel to be admitted to the program for a three-year probationary period if they meet certain security standards.
Voinovich said candidates would also have to implement U.S.-approved security plans for better information-sharing on lost and stolen passports and criminal and terrorist watch-lists; and higher standards for document and airport security.
As part of the plan, these new, higher security standards would also eventually be applied to existing Visa Waiver Program nations, too.
'Enhancing the security of the whole program is the key political selling point' for reform, said a Voinovich aide. 'You can`t expect the American people to support (an expansion of the program) if you can`t promise the highest standards' of security.
Under the bill, officials will have to 'certify that the country is cooperative on counter-terrorism and does not pose a security or law enforcement threat to the United States,' Voinovich said on the Senate floor last week.
He said candidate countries 'would be required to conclude new agreements with the United States to further strengthen cooperation on counter-terrorism and improve information-sharing about critical security issues.'
The Voinovich aide said the cooperation and information-sharing envisaged would be designed to enable U.S. agencies to 'track the shady characters who might want to come to the United States (from the candidate countries) more closely.'
The bill would also give officials a year to draw up a plan for an ambitious program of so-called electronic pre-clearance, an Internet-based visa-lite system whereby travelers could get cleared against terrorist and other watch-lists before traveling to the United States.
Supporters of reform say the criteria for the existing Visa Waiver Program were drawn before Sept. 11, 2001, and reflect a very different global environment. The standards are mainly concerned with economic factors and potential illegal migration, rather than security.
Indeed, the only restriction on the discretion the proposed law affords officials is that they cannot deny a country a place in the pilot scheme merely because its visa refusal rate -- one of the metrics that reformers say is outdated in the post-Sept. 11 environment.
'By limiting travel to the United States,' especially from friendly nations, Voinovich said, 'we are risking a loss of influence with the future leaders of our closest allies.'
Indeed the failure to expand the program has caused friction with U.S. allies, especially in the European Union. Fifteen of the 25 EU member states are in the Visa Waiver Program, but U.S. citizens can travel to any EU member country visa-free.
The demand from EU states like Poland, Estonia and Latvia -- where Bush first pledged to widen the program, on the fringes of the NATO summit in Riga last month -- for reciprocity on visa-free travel has become clamorous.
Although U.S. officials have said they are working with candidate countries and have touted so-called road-maps to program compliance, no additional countries have been admitted since Sept. 11, 2001, and European impatience is growing palpable.
The current logjam in the program 'risk(s) marginalizing some of our closest allies in the war on terror and losing the hearts and minds of their future leaders and citizens,' said Voinovich.
European officials have made few public comments about the proposal. They are weighing what is 'regarded as a positive step,' said one, but 'waiting to read the fine print' of any legislative proposal.
The official said the ball was 'very much in the U.S. court,' and the EU would be watching developments in the new Congress with interest.
In the past, House Republicans and some senators of both parties have resisted administration efforts to push back deadlines for countries in the program to adopt security measures, and their opposition made any expansion of the program a political non-starter.
Some observers have suggested that, with Democrats now in control of Congress, the administration might have more leeway on the issue, and official said they are optimistic about the prospects for reform.
The bill will have to be re-introduced in the next Congress, which the Voinovich aide said he intended to do.