Letter to the Honorable John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services; the Honorable Jack Reed, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services; the Honorable Mac Thornberry, Chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services and the Honorable Adam Smith, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Armed Services - Support the Afghan Special Immigration Visa Program

Letter

Dear Chairmen McCain and Thornberry, Ranking Members Reed and Smith, and Conferees:

During conference committee consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, we encourage you to follow the Senate-passed motion to instruct conferees to include language to extend the Afghan special immigrant visa (SIV) program and authorize additional visas, while also retaining the future viability of this critical program.

The Afghan SIV program was first enacted through the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009 to provide a life-saving path to safety for Afghan nationals who worked alongside U.S. troops, diplomats, and contractors, and who face serious danger as a result of that work. Since then, the program has been extended and reformed numerous times, each time with significant bipartisan and bicameral support. This year, Congress must act so that the State Department can continue to issue visas to Afghans who face imminent threat from the Taliban and other hostile groups because of their service to the U.S. and our allies. Prominent military leaders, diplomats, and national security experts, including Gen. John Nicholson, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Gen. David Petraeus, and Amb. Ryan Crocker, have urged Congress to take action, noting that this program is essential to U.S. national security and credibility amongst our allies.

The Administration aims to issue the remaining authorized visas by the end of this calendar year. Meanwhile, there are thousands of Afghans at some stage in the SIV process and qualified individuals continue to apply. That is why the President, in his FY2017 budget, asked Congress to authorize additional visas to help address the remaining backlog of applicants. Without further congressional action, the State Department will exhaust its current supply of visas, essentially halting the SIV program, stranding these valuable allies and sending a discouraging message to allies involved in future engagements. We urge you to authorize these additional visas to prevent a shutdown of the SIV program.

During the House's consideration of H.R. 4909, language was included in Section 1216 that would restrict program eligibility to exclude Afghans who worked in U.S. consulates, embassies, or military bases. These restrictions could have a harmful impact on those Afghans that worked on-base with U.S. troops, or in any number of capacities with U.S. diplomats, because they are just as likely to face danger if their service becomes known to forces hostile to the United States. We urge you to retain current eligibility guidelines for the Afghan SIV program. These allies risked their lives to serve the United States and we owe it to them to ensure their safety.

We urge you to stand in strong support of our national security and, in recognition of the sacrifice of our Afghan allies, to authorize additional visas for SIV applicants and to protect current SIV guidelines. In previous years, Congress has used the NDAA to demonstrate our strong support to these important allies while assuring others across the globe that the United States will stand by its commitments in future missions. We urge you to continue to do so.

Sincerely,