CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY

STATEMENT SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
BY
THE TRAVEL BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE
FOR THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
HEARING ON THE US-VISIT PROGRAM
THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2004

OVERVIEW

The Travel Business Roundtable (TBR) would like to thank Chairman Davis and Ranking Member Waxman for holding this important hearing, and is pleased to have the opportunity to submit a statement for the record regarding the US-VISIT program. TBR is a CEO-based organization that represents the diverse travel and tourism industry, with more than 85 member corporations, associations and labor groups. The travel and tourism industry is an engine for economic development and job creation. Some 17 million Americans are employed in travel and tourism-related jobs with an annual payroll of $157 billion. Travel and tourism is the first, second or third largest industry in 29 states and the District of Columbia. In the last decade, travel and tourism has emerged as America’s second largest services export and the third largest retail sales industry. Our industry is in 50 states, 435 Congressional districts and every city in the United States.

It is impossible to stress enough how important international visitors are to the health of our industry as well as the overall U.S. economy. From 2001 to 2002, international travelers to the United States dropped from 44.9 million to 41.9 million. International visitor spending in the U.S. over that time decreased from $71.9 billion to $66.5 billion. And our travel trade surplus of $26 billion in 1996 plummeted to $5.5 billion in 2002. This continued downward trend of international visitor patterns has caused federal, state and local government travel-related tax receipts to decline from $95.5 billion in 2001 to $93.2 billion in 2002. Moreover, U.S. travel and tourism industry payrolls have dwindled from $160.3 billion in 2001 to $157 billion in 2002, and industry job growth remained stagnant at 17 million workers.

TBR vigorously supports the efforts of Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, Congress and the Bush Administration to establish and implement programs such as US-VISIT to protect our country. However, it is vital that the agencies incrementally implementing these programs consider their collective impact on the traveling public. Being ever mindful of DHS Secretary Tom Ridge’s admonition about the need to create the proper balance between protecting our homeland and promoting free and open commerce, TBR’s goal is to ensure that the paramount objective of protecting our nation’s security is pursued in a manner that is effective, coherent and does not unnecessarily compromise our economic vitality.

US-VISIT

The US-VISIT program was officially launched on January 5, 2004 at 115 airports and 14 seaports. The system, created by Congress to better track foreign travelers crossing our borders, requires all visitors entering the U.S. with a visa to submit biometric identifiers at ports of entry. The initial phase requires two fingerprint scans and a digital photograph.

Thus far in its implementation, significant delays have not been reported. However, TBR is concerned that the program’s technological ability may not be able to incorporate significantly more travelers during peak travel seasons. We are also concerned that, as more information is added to the database, search times may become lengthy and delays may occur.

The exit component of US-VISIT, a self-service kiosk, is currently in testing at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and Miami’s seaport. TBR has heard reports that the system, because it is voluntary in nature and many travelers are not aware of the need to “check out,” may require personnel to guide passengers through it in a timely manner. Thus far in the pilot program, many travelers have simply failed to notice the kiosks, which may create problems for them upon re-entry in the U.S. through no fault of their own.

In testimony before the House Select Homeland Security Subcommittee on Infrastructure and Border Security on January 28, 2004, James May, president and CEO of the Air Transport Association of America and a TBR member, expressed concern that the burden of directing travelers through the exit program might fall on airline personnel. TBR agrees that the airline industry should not bear this responsibility.

In the event of excessive wait times at airports and seaports, DHS has created a contingency plan for mitigating delays. The plan would exempt select travelers from US-VISIT screening if delays exceed one hour. DHS Under Secretary Asa Hutchinson testified at the same subcommittee hearing that this system was developed as a precaution and has not been implemented to date. TBR is concerned that this contingency response does not adequately address security objectives and believes a more appropriate response would be the addition of staff and capacity during excessive wait times in order to conduct necessary screening.

US-VISIT at our land borders is still being evaluated, with deadlines for its capabilities to be in place at the 50 busiest ports of entry by December 31, 2004 and all remaining land borders by December 31, 2005. TBR believes that adequate staffing and technology must be put in place prior to implementation so that our land borders are not gridlocked.

THE POTENTIAL NEXUS WITH BIOMETRIC PASSPORTS

The October 26, 2004 deadline requiring travelers from Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries to present passports with biometric identifiers coincides with the extended deadline for all VWP passports to be machine readable. A potential crisis was avoided with the delay of the machine readable passport (MRP) deadline last October. However, the new biometrics deadline still looms on the horizon. While TBR supports the implementation of these technologies for strengthening security at our nation’s borders, we are concerned that enforcing such requirements without allowing sufficient time to meet them will harm our industry, the U.S. economy and our nation’s image around the world. TBR supports the immediate passage of legislation that would allow VWP countries sufficient time to meet the biometrics requirement either by postponing the deadline until a date when a majority of the countries estimate they can be compliant or by constructing an incremental waiver program whereby each country’s deadline is determined by its progress toward meeting the specified requirements.

The Bush Administration is reportedly considering a solution to the biometrics issue that would involve extending the existing deadline to a yet-unspecified date while simultaneously requiring all VWP citizens to enroll in the US-VISIT program. This would subject VWP visitors to the same fingerprint and facial recognition requirements that travelers who carry visas currently face.

While the issue of the biometrics deadline for the VWP countries is significant, TBR believes that the inclusion of VWP travelers in the US-VISIT system, by itself, could also create strong negative impacts. Attitudes abroad toward collection of personal data by the U.S. government and the suspect capacity of the US-VISIT system to absorb another 13 million travelers without causing significant delays, could lead international travelers to eliminate the U.S. as a potential travel destination altogether. We urge Congress to pass a clean extension of the biometric passport deadline for VWP travelers that does not require their inclusion in the US-VISIT program.

CONCLUSION

According to reports from DHS, US-VISIT has already uncovered 30 known criminals and is building on its suspected terrorist watch list. TBR is pleased with this success and with the lack of reported significant delays at ports of entry. However, it is critical that all aspects of the system function in accordance with one another in order to monitor our borders and protect our homeland effectively. Therefore, it is vital that DHS conduct a thorough evaluation of the US-VISIT system in its initial implementation phase at airports and seaports to determine where problems might exist, develop projections of capacity for inclusion of additional classes of travelers, test concepts for future implementation phases before they are undertaken and set realistic staffing goals to ensure the success of this endeavor.

A variety of other homeland security issues continue to dominate the travel and tourism industry’s legislative agenda. In addition to US-VISIT, changes to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and other non-immigrant visa policies, the introduction of the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening (CAPPS II) initiative and other programs collectively place travel and tourism at the vortex. Unique challenges attendant to each, when combined with overlapping common concerns, demand a coherent and harmonized approach to problem solving. TBR has developed a white paper titled Homeland Security Policy and the Travel and Tourism Industry: Finding the Proper Balance, which examines these issues in greater detail. The paper is available on TBR’s website, www.tbr.org.

TBR stands ready to work with Congress, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and other relevant federal entities to ensure that those who wish to do harm to our nation are prevented from traveling to the U.S., while those who seek to visit our country for legitimate reasons are treated respectfully and are admitted in an efficient manner. We appreciate the Committee’s attention to these pressing matters and offer our assistance in any way.

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