Sadly, since 9/11, we've lost 16 percent of the international tourism business.

We've always had a very bipartisan approach to this Subcommittee and we'll continue to do that, and that's how we're producing some results.

the quickest way to stimulate the U.S. economy is to improve the current visa process to allow more foreign travelers

That level of air traffic is going to mean a lot of airplanes in the sky.

Aren't there classes of visitors who don't have in-person interviews today?

Have you projected how--where you'd like to be in terms of the wait time?

What we want is that someone who wants to go can go when they want to go.

We also know, are conscious of the government budget right now, that they're actually a profit center, not a cost center.

The bill that we have gives the State Department an economic incentive for increasing the efficiency.

We've been working with the State Department and I know they have someone here today so we're going to be hearing from them.

There are a lot of good ideas out there and we want to discuss a few common sense solutions, simple fixes that can expand our country's tourism sector at no cost to taxpayers.

I want to thank all the witnesses that are here from all over the country for this important discussion about tourism and the impact on our economy.

Tourism is about so much more, as we all know, than hospitality. It's about jobs.

It allows the Secretary of State to grant a waiver of up to an additional 3 years, 4 years total, so that foreign tourists can renew their visas without having to jump through the hoops of another in-person interview.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong, strong support of H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act. This bill provides important protections for gun owners, and its time is past due. As a…

If that's the case, they were not keeping up with their obligations to the tribes.

That seems like a pretty short timeline, since it sounds like very little consultation was done beforehand.

I take the concerns raised by Indian tribes especially seriously.