Military

On June 6^th of this year, President Bush proposed creating a new Department of Homeland Security to bring together vital preparedness, law enforcement, and emergency response functions that are currently scattered among numerous departments and agencies of the federal government. On June 18^th, Majority Leader Armey introduced the President’s homeland security proposal as H.R. 5005, the "Homeland Security Act of 2002." Today’s markup is an important step in bringing this urgent project to fruition.

Today, the Committee on International Relations will mark up the provisions of the Homeland Security Act that are within the Committee’s jurisdiction. We will then submit our recommendations on these provisions to the Select Committee on Homeland Security.

The most important provision of the Homeland Security Act that falls within the Committee’s jurisdiction is section 403, which would transfer to the Secretary of Homeland Security all responsibility for enforcing and administering the laws relating to processing of visa petitions at United States diplomatic and consular posts abroad. These responsibilities are currently vested in employees of the State Department, including the Secretary of State and consular officers who are members of the Foreign Service. Section 403 provides that the authority vested in the Secretary of Homeland Security shall be exercised through the Secretary of State. Section 403 further provides that the Secretary of Homeland Security may delegate some or all responsibility for visa processing to any officers and employees of the federal government.

I strongly support this provision of the President’s homeland security plan. Today Mr. Lantos and I will offer an amendment to clarify and reinforce the provision. Our amendment will address concerns expressed by some who believe the President’s proposal does not go far enough. These critics have suggested not only giving the Secretary of Homeland Security exclusive authority over the visa process, but also requiring Homeland Security personnel to do the actual adjudication of all visa applications at all our embassies and consulates --- over 10 million applications per year.

In my view, this proposal is well-intentioned but ultimately self-defeating. It would require the creation of a whole new bureaucracy, and would cause enormous practical difficulties in our embassies and consulates abroad. Even more important, it would risk overwhelming Homeland Security personnel with non-homeland security functions and thereby making it difficult or impossible for them to perform their central mission.

Our amendment will provide for a compromise on the issue of visa adjudication by Homeland Security employees. The amendment will explicitly authorize the assignment of Homeland Security employees in U.S. diplomatic and consular posts abroad. Rather than assume all visa processing functions, however, these employees will concentrate on identifying and reviewing cases that present homeland security issues.

Under our amendment, Homeland Security officers at U.S. embassies and other overseas posts would train consular officers, ensure their access to appropriate information, coordinate the gathering and analysis of intelligence related to threats to homeland security, and review individual visa petitions that present homeland security issues. This arrangement will preserve the essence of the Administration's proposal --- the sensible division of labor under which homeland security officers will be allowed to concentrate on homeland security functions --- while helping to ensure that security concerns will be central to key decisions made abroad.

Our amendment will also address a possible unintended consequence of the present language in the bill whereby certain visa decisions may be subject to administrative and judicial review which they are not subject to under current law. With over 3 million visa applications denied each year, this change would have enormous implications for our judicial system as well as for the security of our borders. By transferring to the Secretary of Homeland Security exactly those authorities currently vested in the Secretary of State, and by explicitly providing that no private rights of action are created, my amendment will ensure that denials of visa petitions in our overseas posts will continue to be non-reviewable.

Finally, our amendment would provide that the Secretary of State may deny any visa application which the Secretary has reason to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy or security consequences for the United States. This language would be substituted for a broader authority in the introduced version of H.R. 5005, which states that the Secretary of State may deny a visa if he deems it "necessary or advisable in the national interests of the United States."

We will also offer an amendment which addresses section 302, regarding the transfer of certain programs from the Department of Energy. The amendment will strike a clause relating to certain assistance programs designed to reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation abroad. Under this section, certain parts of the Department of Energy, including the Nuclear Assessment Program (which, among other things, is relied upon to assess the credibility of nuclear-bomb threats and extortion plots and to follow nuclear smuggling incidents), would be moved to the new Homeland Security agency. In addition, section 302 includes a clause which would transfer to Homeland Security certain assistance programs to the former Soviet Union relating to protecting nuclear materials there, currently part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Administration representatives have told the Committee that this language is no longer necessary because the final decision has been made to not transfer those programs. Therefore, the amendment will make the correction so that the assistance programs are not transferred.

We intend to offer these amendments to sections 302 and 403 en bloc.

In conclusion, I urge my colleagues on the Committee to support the President’s proposal for overseas visa processing, as perfected by the amendment we will offer. By retaining a role for consular officers in adjudicating the millions of applications presenting no security-related issues, the President's plan will allow Homeland Security officers to perform their homeland security mission. By authorizing the presence of Homeland Security officers in our overseas posts to identify and deal with homeland security issues, our amendment will ensure that the President’s plan works as intended.