Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 158, the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. The Visa Waiver Program allows nationals of 38 countries to travel to the United States for a maximum of 90 days for business or tourism purposes without obtaining a visa. The travelers must present a valid machine-readable passport and meet certain other immigration and security requirements. In order to be designated a VWP country, a nation must offer reciprocal visa-free travel to U.S. citizens, agree to share security- related information such as whether citizens of that country traveling to the U.S. represent a threat to U.S. security or welfare, agree to timely report lost and stolen passports, and have less than a 3 percent visa refusal rate in the year prior to designation years, among other requirements. The VWP was created in 1986 as a way to promote and facilitate travel and tourism to the United States. It has done just that, with hundreds of millions of foreign nationals traveling to the U.S. since the program's implementation. So the positive effects of the VWP on the U.S. economy should not be understated. Yet no amount of economic stimulation is worth risking the lives of our constituents, and recent events around the world necessitate changes to the VWP in order to help ensure its safety.…”