CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY

STATEMENT SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
BY
THE TRAVEL BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE
TO THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
HEARING ON THE 2004 STATUTORY DEADLINE FOR REQUIRING VISA WAIVER PROGRAM TRAVELERS TO PRESENT BIOMETRIC PASSPORTS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2004

OVERVIEW

The Travel Business Roundtable (TBR) would like to thank Chairman Sensenbrenner and Ranking Member Conyers for holding this important hearing, and is pleased to have the opportunity to submit a statement for the record regarding the Committee’s consideration of an extension of the October 26, 2004 statutory deadline for requiring Visa Waiver Program (VWP) travelers to present biometric passports upon entry to the United States.

TBR is a CEO-based organization that represents the diverse U.S. 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.

TBR vigorously supports the efforts of Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Bush Administration to establish and implement laws and regulations that will protect our borders, our citizens and our visitors. 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.

THE BIOMETRIC PASSPORT REQUIREMENT

The rapidly approaching October 26, 2004 deadline requiring travelers from Visa Waiver Program countries to present passports containing biometric identifiers was established in the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, and as a statutory requirement, can only be modified by congressional action. While TBR strongly supports efforts by Congress and the Administration to implement this program as an additional means of strengthening security at our nation’s borders, we are concerned that doing so without the necessary technological resources could compromise that security and cause harm to the travel and tourism industry, our bilateral relationships and the nation’s image around the world.

VWP countries are among our closest allies, and in 2002, represented 68 percent of all overseas visitors to the U.S., spending approximately $38 billion. Without a delay, VWP travelers will be required to apply for visas, thus increasing FY05 visa applications to almost double the FY03 demand. As a consequence, these visitors will most likely be subjected to the additional scrutiny and hassle of the visa process, which has already experienced heavy backlogs and turned away legitimate travelers.

On January 28, 2004, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty testified before the House Select Homeland Security Subcommittee on Infrastructure and Border Security that VWP countries were given only 17 months notice to comply with the biometrics requirement – a process that normally takes years for a nation to research, develop and implement. Reports from the United Kingdom and Japan, among many other affected countries, show that they will be unable to technologically comply with this requirement until late 2005 at the earliest. Moreover, the few manufacturers that produce the technology these countries need to fulfill the biometrics requirement have indicated that they cannot meet the demand in such a short timeframe, and given the time constraints, would be unable to vouch for the security of the biometric information contained in the passports. For these reasons, the travel and tourism industry feels a great sense of urgency to delay the deadline. It is noteworthy that even the United States, which is not required to comply with this requirement, will not be prepared to issue biometric passports until 2005. This suggests that we are asking our allies to conform to deadlines that we ourselves cannot meet.

We are heartened that Administration officials understand the importance of addressing this issue. In a March 17th letter that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Secretary of State Colin Powell sent to Chairman Sensenbrenner, they requested a two-year extension of the biometrics deadline for VWP citizens. Secretaries Ridge and Powell voiced their own fears that if the deadline is not extended, “travelers will vote with their feet and go elsewhere.”

TBR shares this concern and believes that it is crucial that Congress implement the delay in an expeditious manner to ensure that the affected countries can plan accordingly and so that potential travelers from those countries have sufficient notice of what will be expected of them as they make their plans to travel to the U.S. We hope to work closely with Congress and the Administration to quickly establish a workable deadline for VWP countries and an effective means of communicating the changes to the countries and their citizens.

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. Every 1 percent drop in international arrivals to the U.S. accounts for the loss of 172,000 jobs and $1.2 billion in tax revenue. 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. The United States cannot allow this downward trend to continue.

CONCLUSION

To further quote from the letter to Chairman Sensenbrenner from Secretaries Powell and Ridge regarding the impracticality of the upcoming deadline: “Clearly we need to address this problem. We believe there are good reasons to extend the October 26, 2004 deadline.…A biometric deadline extension will enable our allies to develop viable programs and resolve the scientific problems to produce the more secure biometrically enabled documents that the original legislation mandated.” We could not agree more.

In considering the need for an extension and the necessary timeline to ensure that VWP countries are able to comply with the biometric passport requirement, we believe that Congress and the Administration need to explore a number of important questions, namely: What have VWP countries told the Committee about their ability to comply with the requirement? Based on their responses, is the two-year extension suggested by Secretaries Powell and Ridge an accurate reflection of the necessary time involved in achieving a workable standard? Given that there are a finite number of biometric identifier manufacturers, and questions have been raised about the durability and security of the identifiers, will they be able to meet the worldwide demand with a reliable product? And perhaps most importantly, how can the United States ensure that VWP countries and their citizens have the most reliable information possible about what is required of them, and when?

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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