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Statement of Chairman Sensenbrenner

House Judiciary Committee

Oversight Hearing on Whether Congress Should Extend the October 2004 Statutory Deadline for Requiring Certain Foreign Visitors to Present Biometric Passports

APRIL 21, 2004

            Good morning. Today we meet to discuss the October, 2004 deadline for countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program to certify that they can issue machine readable passports that are tamper resistant and incorporate biometric identifiers. The Visa Waiver Program allows travelers from certain designated countries to come to the United States as temporary visitors without having to obtain a nonimmigrant visa. There are currently 27 countries participating and in fiscal year 2002, 13 million foreign visitors entered the U.S. under the program. Since its creation in 1986, the program has greatly facilitated travel to the United States from program countries. Through reciprocal arrangements, the program also benefits American international travelers.

            The visa waiver program was established on the premise that nationals of participating countries pose little security risk or threat of overstaying their period of admittance. This premise may have been true in years past, but it is questionable today. For example, in February of this year, thousands of blank French passports were stolen from a delivery truck, the third such theft in less than a year. Spain is a visa waiver program country, and it appears that most of the terrorists who carried out the Madrid bombings were Spanish citizens or legal immigrants entitled to passports which they could have used to travel to the United States under the program.             In part to address threats like these, I authored the Enhanced Visa Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002. This Act requires that by no later than October 26, 2004, the governments of visa waiver program countries certify that they have programs to issue to their nationals machine readable passports that are tamper-resistant and that incorporate biometric identifiers that comply with biometric identifier standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization. On or after this date, any alien applying for admission under the program must present a passport that meets these standards (unless the passport was issued prior to this date).

            This requirement aims at closing security loopholes. First, it will allow DHS inspectors at ports of entry to determine whether a passport properly identifies its bearer. This will combat terrorist imposters and prevent them from defeating lookout lists on which they are posted. Second, it will make passports much harder to alter or counterfeit.

Third, in conjunction with the installation of scanners at ports of entry to read the passports, the DHS can track the arrival and departure of travelers and identify those who overstay their visas.

            My goal in selecting the October, 2004, deadline was to push countries to act promptly to modernize their passports. I have contacted foreign governments participating in the visa waiver program and asked whether they will meet the October deadline. It appears that for most Visa Waiver Countries, the deadline is unreachable. Fortunately, the impending deadline has led to results by at least a few countries and progress in several others. Belgium had one of the weakest passport regimes in Europe, but has now so completely revised its approach that it will be among the first countries to meet the new biometric requirements. Belgium has also improved its physical security of blank passports so that not one has been stolen since 1999. Hopefully, France will follow it’s neighbor and take steps to stop the continuing theft of blank French passports.

             The administration has written me to say that there are “interoperability issues, privacy issues, chip durability concerns, as well as production and procurement delays” and has asked for legislation to extend the biometric passport deadline for two years. At the same time, the Administration has initiated security procedures that will limit the risk of extending the deadlines. Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it will begin fingerprinting each traveler from Visa Waiver Program countries in September of this year.

            The abbreviated inspection process for visa waiver travelers will be greatly strengthened with the incorporation of US-VISIT, especially until such time as all countries participating in the visa waiver program are issuing their citizens passports with biometric identifiers. To date, US-VISIT has been an outstanding success, taking half a minute or less to capture biometric information while the conventional interview takes place. Under the program, arriving aliens from overseas have two fingerprints and a photograph digitally recorded with little inconvenience added. This data is used to verify the identity of the visitor and is compared against criminal and terrorist watch lists. 

             I called today’s hearing so that the Committee may hear from Secretaries Powell and Ridge on both their efforts over the past two years to encourage visa waiver program governments to meet the statutory requirements and also on their assessment of the ability of countries to meet the deadline. This will provide valuable information for the Committee to evaluate the Administration’s request that we extend the deadline for a period of two years.