Phil Gingrey: “Mr. Chairman, I believe our Nation needs to secure its points of entry, and specifically I believe that we should…”

“Mr. Chairman, I believe our Nation needs to secure its points of entry, and specifically I believe that we should prevent additional countries from joining the United States visa waiver program until we have technical and human resources to secure our points of entry. I do not believe our Nation can afford to allow more visitors in the United States without screening them prior to arrival. This amendment would prevent funds from being used to negotiate additional visa waiver countries. The State Department should not be using funds to negotiate new visa waivers until the machine-readable and tamper-resistant biometric identification standards that were mandated by the U.S. PATRIOT Act as a cornerstone of the entry-exit system are fully operational. We refer to that, Mr. Chairman, as the US-VISIT program. There are currently 27 visa waiver countries, and I believe it is too risky to negotiate additional countries without first having our security screening system in place. Mr. Chairman, we cannot afford to provide more opportunities for terrorists to breach a loophole in our security.”