Homeland Security

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Jackson Lee, and Members of the Subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today on an important matter for the U.S. travel industry - the Visa Waiver Pilot Program. In light of the April 30, 2000 expiration date for the program, we applaud the Chairman's early action on this critical issue.

I am William S. Norman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), the national, non-profit organization representing all components of the $542 billion U.S. travel and tourism industry. TIA's mission is to promote and facilitate increased travel to and within the United States. It is on behalf of TIA, its more than 2,000 member organizations, and the entire U.S. travel industry, that I testify today on the Visa Waiver Pilot Program (VWPP), its importance to the U.S. economy, and the need for a permanent reauthorization of this vital program. The U.S. travel and tourism industry is a major force in this nation's economy, generating some $542 billion in expenditures and creating 7.6 million direct U.S. jobs this past year. International tourism has a significant impact on the U.S. economy. In 1999, 47 million international visitors to the U.S. generated $95 billion in spending, created 1 million direct U.S. jobs, and helped the U.S. achieve a $12 billion positive balance of trade in international tourism receipts.

Why is permanency so important? The Visa Waiver Program is a win-win partnership between the private sector and the federal government. The private sector tourism industry markets and advertises its various brands and destinations to world travelers, and the federal government eases entry by providing visa-free travel. The tourism industry and the nation win when millions of visitors come to the U.S. and support a million jobs and generate nearly $100 billion in expenditures. This economic impact touches all states and cities, urban and rural areas, and results in billions of dollars of tax revenue as well. The federal government wins since the State Department can shift its limited resources from screening millions of low-risk travelers to operations in higher-risk countries where it can devote more personnel and time to checking travelers wanting to visit the U.S. Lastly, outbound U.S. travelers win as well since this reciprocal program allows them to travel visa-free to the participating countries.

Congress created the VWPP in 1986, and two years later the first eight countries were enrolled in the program. There are now 29 low-risk countries participating in the Visa Waiver program. We are hopeful Greece will eventually be admitted to the program when it can satisfy Justice Department concerns regarding its system for securing and issuing passports. While the U.S. travel industry supports the broadest participation possible in the VWPP in order to increase inbound international tourism, we continue to believe the program must continue to be based on objective criteria. For example, Brazil and South Korea are currently our nation's 5^th and 14^th largest international tourism markets, respectively, and they would be welcome additions to the program. We would also welcome the participation of other countries such as South Africa and Venezuela. At the same time, we continue to support a system that provides for objective criteria as a means of safeguarding the United States.

Members of this Subcommittee represent districts in seven states (California, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Texas, Utah, and Virginia). International visitor spending in these seven states exceeds $35 billion annually. In fact, California and Florida alone account for nearly one-third of all international tourism spending in the U.S. This is big business and important trade, and the reason why the Visa Waiver Program is so critical to the economic health of this nation.

While applying and waiting several days or possibly a week for a visitor visa may not appear to be a significant annoyance, visa-free travel to the U.S. makes this nation more attractive as a visitor destination and demonstrates that our nation's welcome mat is out. International travelers who are made to feel unwelcome will vote with their feet and choose to visit other destinations such as Australia, France, or Brazil.

Worldwide travel was estimated to have reached nearly 700 million tourist arrivals in 1999. If the U.S. is going to boost its share of this booming market, and in fact reverse our recent decline in overall market share worldwide, we must do all we can to attract international travelers and provide for a positive travel experience. And that positive experience begins even before an international traveler leaves home for the U.S. It begins by offering them the opportunity to travel visa-free to the world's 3^rd most popular travel destination.

How can we strengthen the program? We recognize that while the current program has been a success and has resulted in no major security threats to our nation, the time is right to strengthen the program through security enhancements and an ongoing oversight process. TIA's government affairs staff has held numerous meetings with Subcommittee staff and have identified some potential modifications to the current program.

One of the enhancements to the program that TIA and the travel industry supports is a mandatory machine-readable passport (MRP) with appropriate security features to minimize fraud and improve the inspection process at U.S. ports of entry. Only three countries (Belgium, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland) that have been in the program for several years do not yet issue machine-readable passports to their citizens. Norway has begun issuing MRP's in some areas of the country. Portugal was admitted to the program in August of 1999 on the basis of a commitment to begin issuing machine-readable passports, and along with Liechtenstein will begin issuing them during the summer of 2000. In the past, both the INS and the Department of State have asked for this change, and TIA fully supports taking this important step.

However, TIA does request that Congress provide a generous grace period so this action does not create a barrier for U.S.-bound travelers from the five countries mentioned in the previous paragraph. It will take some time for these countries to develop a machine-readable passport and make them available to their citizens. With some 850,000 travelers coming to the U.S. annually from these five countries, we want to ensure that this new mandate does not impede inbound travel to the U.S., thereby harming the spending and jobs that are created through this important economic activity.

TIA also supports the creation and implementation of an ongoing accounting or review process that allows the federal government to monitor and report on the performance of countries in the Visa Waiver Program. The framework for just such a review system exists with the current VWPP Inter-Agency Working Group that involves the Department of State, INS, and other law enforcement agencies. We applaud the State Department and INS for the creation of this Working Group, which designed an entirely new protocol that was employed in screening the four countries nominated for the VWPP in the most recent round of designations. This new system facilitated a more rigorous and thorough inspection and review process that led to final approval for three of the four countries: Portugal, Singapore, and Uruguay. As mentioned earlier, because of this vigorous review process, Greece has been denied admission to the VWPP until they can satisfy Justice Department concerns regarding passport issuance and security.

As part of this ongoing review process, we believe that a truly automated I-94 system at U.S. airports would provide useful information about the arrival and departure of overseas travelers, including those traveling to the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program.

Our goal through the promotion of permanency is to provide for a more stable and certain program. Frequent reauthorization of the VWPP creates unnecessary confusion and uncertainty for international travelers and tour operators who arrange group travel to the U.S. While official Washington and the U.S. travel industry understand this to be a routine reauthorization, potential international guests only see an approaching deadline that results in concern and anxiety over the possible need to obtain a B-1 or B-2 visitor's visa.

We remain confident that the U.S. Congress will renew the Visa Waiver Program and not allow it to lapse, understanding full well the tens of millions of dollars it would cost to restaff consular facilities in the VWPP countries. We are confident that Congress recognizes that such a lapse could also result in major harm to inbound international tourism to the U.S. with a resultant loss of revenue reaching into the billions of dollars.

In closing, I wish to state again the travel industry's strong support for a permanent and enhanced Visa Waiver Program. The U.S. travel industry will do its share to market this country as the premier travel and tourism destination in the world. To help us achieve our shared goal, the federal government must continue to facilitate inbound travel and remove barriers to travel while at the same time safeguarding the security of this nation and its citizens.

The VWPP creates multiple winners in the private and public sector, results in no losers, and costs the U.S. Treasury nothing. The Congress is to be congratulated for creating such an outstanding program, and now we simply ask that the highly successful, 12-year old Visa Waiver Program be made permanent.

Thank you for the opportunity to explain the important role the VWPP plays in facilitating and encouraging international tourism to the U.S. and our support for a permanent program. TIA pledges our continued assistance in crafting legislation that will achieve the twin results of permanency and security.