As Republicans squabbled over Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to bar all Muslims from traveling to the United States, the House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill imposing new restrictions on a visa waiver program that currently permits roughly 20 million people to enter the country annually.
The bill, which was approved on a 407 to 19 vote, would increase information and intelligence sharing between the United States and the 38 countries whose passport holders are allowed to visit the country without getting a visa and weed out travelers who have visited certain countries where they may have been radicalized.
There are significant differences between the House’s bill and a measure from Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), which has not yet been scheduled for a vote. But the strong showing in the House could put momentum behind efforts to include visa waiver legislation in the omnibus spending package – a must-pass bill that lawmakers are currently trying to finalize before the current government spending bill expires on Friday.
The House measure seeks to prevent anyone who has traveled to Syria, Iraq, Iran or Sudan since March 1, 2011 – the start of the Syrian civil war – from taking advantage of the waiver program, requiring instead that they submit to the traditional visa approval process, which requires an in-person application interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate. The Senate would impose a five-year restriction on individuals who have traveled to Iraq or Syria from using the waiver program. Both bills give the secretary of Homeland Security the authority to take countries out of the waiver system.
The biggest reason for reform of the program, lawmakers argue, is that thirty of the 38 countries whose passport-holders are eligible for the waiver program are in Europe, meaning most could likely come to the United States without a visa under present rules. Lawmakers are worried about those 5,000 to 30,000 radicalized individuals who have visited Syria and Iraq and hold European passports.
“That’s what this bill is designed to stop,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in a statement. “We need to strengthen the security of the Visa Waiver Program to keep terrorists from reaching our shores.”
The House bill would also require that countries that wish to continue participating in the program issue passports with embedded chips containing a person’s biometric data, report information about stolen passports to Interpol and share information about known or suspected terrorists with the United States.
The proposal was drafted by a task force of Republican committee chairmen, who have been working on a roster of proposals to respond to the Paris terror attacks by stepping up security measures at home and abroad.
Democrats and Republicans don’t always see eye-to-eye on these proposals. For example, most Democrats have decried Republican attempts to suspend the admission of Syrian and Iraqi refugees until background check procedures improve, while most Republicans have dismissed Democrat-led attempts to prevent known or suspected terrorists from obtaining a firearm or explosive device.
But Democratic leaders anticipated their members would back the House visa waiver measure in large numbers.
“My sense is that most Democrats will take a look at this legislation and probably support it,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “I think most people will take a look at this bill and say, this is probably the kind of place we can go to bipartisanly.”
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