Haley Stevens: “I offer an amendment to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. This initiative is based on the 9/11 Commission's…”

“I offer an amendment to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. This initiative is based on the 9/11 Commission's recommendations and was authorized in ``The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.'' It requires the Department of Homeland Security--DHS--to implement a new documentation program by January 1, 2008. Once this program is in place, all U.S. citizens crossing the Canadian or Mexican border into our country must have a passport or other accepted documentation, such as a passcard, in order to verify their citizenship. The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department are now in the process of developing the rules needed to implement this initiative. The air and sea portion of this initiative could be implemented as early as next January. The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department are evaluating two options for this initiative. The first would require a person entering the United States to present a passport. However, passports are expensive and require weeks to acquire. The second option is a passcard, which would be slightly cheaper, but would still require a background check and could only be used for travel between our country, Canada, and Mexico. We must tighten our border security, but many have raised serious concerns about both of these options.…”