Christopher Shays: “I first want to thank Mr. Price for the work he has done on this legislation, and Mr. Rogers. I know we are going to be…”

“I first want to thank Mr. Price for the work he has done on this legislation, and Mr. Rogers. I know we are going to be spending a lot more money, but this is Homeland Security, and I intend to support this legislation. The amendment would appropriate $100,000 to allow the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, and the International Criminal Police Organization, Interpol, to share counterterrorism and stolen and lost travel document information. The DHS Secretary has already publicly stated he hopes to integrate the Interpol information at points of entry. This amendment simply provides funding for that stated activity. The funding would provide the necessary startup costs for the minimum IT equipment to set up the data sharing, as well as additional funds to facilitate travel and professional exchanges. Interpol currently maintains a database of 14.4 million lost and stolen internationally recognized travel documents from 123 countries. This includes 67 million passports, of which over a third are from countries that participate in the visa waiver program. Interpol currently has a list of over 48,000 blank passports that have been stolen around the world. Blank passports are better than blank checks for terrorists, as the 9/11 Commission rightly concluded. For terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons.”