Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Visa Waiver Program Security Enhancement Act.

I am pleased to be joined by Senator FLAKE, who is the lead Republican cosponsor, as well as Senators HEITKAMP, COATS, HEINRICH, JOHNSON, BENNET, AYOTTE, WARNER, BALDWIN, TESTER, KING, KLOBUCHAR, BOXER, and BLUMENTHAL.

This bill would improve the security of the Visa Waiver Program, which is used by about 20 million travelers a year.

The horrific attacks in Paris and the emergence of ISIL make it absolutely clear that we must strengthen the Visa Waiver Program to protect our country. This bill would do just that.

38 countries are now part of the Visa Waiver Program.

Nationals from these countries may come to the United States for up to 90 days without a visa.

Travelers through the program use an online application to gain approval to travel to the United States. Many of these travelers simply apply for approval from their home computer.

Participating countries must also enter into valuable intelligence-sharing agreements with the United States.

By comparison, only about 36 million people secured visas for business, tourism, and other temporary purposes to the United States from 2005 to 2010--an average of only 6 million per year.

As we all know, fewer than 2,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict--which go through a heavy vetting process--were admitted to the United States over the last 4 years.

Put that in perspective: fewer than 2,000 Syrian refugees over 4 years, versus 20 million travelers through the Visa Waiver program annually.

The vetting for a refugee takes 18 to 24 months, whereas an application to travel through the Visa Waiver Program can be approved within seconds.

That should tell us how much of a priority improving the security of this program is.

Today, there are thousands of citizens from European visa waiver countries that have gone to fight in Syria.

In fact, the Visa Waiver Program includes numerous countries that have populations in which some people have become radicalized.

The program includes 38 countries, including the following: Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, and The United Kingdom.

So, nationals of these countries who travel to Iraq or Syria to train and fight may then be able to cross back into Europe and then come to this country on a visa waiver.

As is now clear, some who committed the recent attacks in Paris were French and Belgian nationals.

The attackers in the Charlie Hebdo attacks--the Kouachi brothers--were born and raised in France. They were French nationals as well.

The European Union Justice Commissioner said in April of this year that 5,000-6,000 Europeans could be fighting in Syria.

More than 1,500 are French nationals.

This is why the Visa Waiver Program, at the current time, poses a major risk--it is a quick and direct route for a terrorist to come to the United States without a visa.

The group known as ISIL has publicly threatened to attack the United States and we have every reason to believe they will exploit every opportunity to do so.

So we must take strong action.

A major concern is also the problem with lost and stolen passports, which could be used by dangerous individuals to gain entry to the United States on the Visa Waiver Program without raising red flags.

According to INTERPOL, nearly 45 million passports have been reported lost or stolen within the past 10 years.

Let me repeat that: 45 million lost or stolen passports circulating worldwide.

Passports typically are valid for five to 10 years, which means many of these lost or stolen passports have not yet expired.

If a blank passport is stolen, it may have no expiration date at all.

A foreign fighter could use one of the millions of unexpired lost and stolen passports to travel to the United States through the Visa Waiver Program in order to do us harm.

Today, the first face-to-face interaction and biometric check that a first-time Visa Waiver Program traveler would have with any U.S. official is when the person reaches the port of entry, like a United States airport.

That provides only a narrow window to detect that the individual is a person who is intent on committing an attack.

This Visa Waiver Program Security Enhancement Act would strengthen the Visa Waiver Program in a variety of ways, making our nation safer and protecting an important stream of international tourism and commerce.

First, the bill says that a national of a Visa Waiver country who has traveled to Iraq or Syria in the last five years would have to get a visa instead of using the Visa Waiver Program.

The effect of this would be that the person would have to go through the normal consular process--in which biometric information would be taken, and the person interviewed--instead of traveling to the United States on a visa waiver.

Second, the bill would require that biometric data, such as digital photographs or fingerprints, be provided to the U.S. government prior to boarding a plane to travel to the U.S. on the Visa Waiver Program but only for those individuals for whom we do not already have biometrics.

Today, biometrics are not taken until a traveler from a Visa Waiver country first enters the United States at the port of entry.

That is too late, and it leaves the opportunity for a person seeking to commit an attack against the aircraft itself to do so.

We have recently seen that ISIL is willing to take down airliners. We know what sort of tragedy can happen when terrorists take control of an airplane.

We must do everything we can to make sure an ISIL member does not board an aircraft bound for the United States with the intent to take it down.

This bill would make the biometric requirement effective within one year, prioritizing areas of danger, and would enable the Department of Homeland Security to extend the roll-out on a country-specific basis.

The Department of Homeland Security has already announced its intent to expand Customs and Border Protection preclearance to new foreign airports, including in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom--all Visa Waiver countries.

As the bill is currently written, those foreign nationals who travel through the preclearance process would satisfy the biometric requirements of the bill.

The simple fact is that we need to develop a way to screen and verify individuals biometrically before they get on a plane to the U.S., and this bill would do that.

Third, the bill would eliminate the use of older-generation passports by any citizen of Visa Waiver Countries.

Within 90 days of enactment, all Visa Waiver travelers would be required to have a valid, unexpired, machine-readable passport that is tamper-resistant and incorporates biometric identifiers.

The Department of Homeland Security has announced that it will roll this out administratively, but this provision would make it a clear statutory requirement.

Fourth, the bill would strengthen the intelligence sharing that is the bedrock of this program.

The Department of Homeland Security has been able to gather valuable data from Visa Waiver countries under existing information sharing agreements.

There are three such agreements. One relates to information regarding known or suspected terrorists. The second relates to sharing of fingerprint data pertaining to serious crimes. And the third requires provision of lost or stolen passport information directly or via INTERPOL.

It is my understanding that--although countries have signed these agreements--not all have fully implemented them. This bill would require that those agreements be implemented, not just signed.

The bill would also establish several new information-sharing provisions, which the Department of Homeland Security would be required to examine in assessing whether a country can join or stay in the Visa Waiver Program.

One such provision would require DHS to consider whether a country contributes to and screens against INTERPOL's lost and stolen documents database.

Let me explain why this is important. Simply put, INTERPOL's lost and stolen documents database is not as frequently used as it could be.

Increased use of INTERPOL's database could assist all nations, including those outside the Visa Waiver Program, to prevent travel using lost or stolen passports and thus to inhibit the international movement of foreign fighters.

This bill would also require DHS to consider whether a country collects and shares biometric information of refugee and asylum seekers--an important provision to help the United States ensure bad actors are prevented from traveling to the United States.

It would also require DHS to consider whether a country shares intelligence about foreign fighters with the United States, as well as with international organizations like INTERPOL.

Lastly, the bill would require that countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program have Federal Air Marshal agreements in place.

The Paris attacks demonstrate beyond any doubt that the Visa Waiver Program creates a security risk for our country.

The Visa Waiver Program Security Enhancement Act will address vulnerabilities in the Visa Waiver Program, improve information sharing, and help keep our country safe.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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