A bid by the administration and a bipartisan coalition in Congress to open the door to tourists from more countries to visit America without a visa is likely dead this year, according to congressional sources. The reason: The leading foe, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith, doesn’t believe the administration has fixed security loopholes in the proposal.
It’s called the “visa waiver program” and about 36 countries are included. Under the post 9/11 rules, those countries check the backgrounds of visitors and businesspeople who promise not to stay in the U.S. longer than 90 days without obtaining a visa.
The administration wants to expand the program to other nations, including Poland and Brazil, believing that tourists will hit U.S. shores with handfuls of cash to spend. A federal report said that visitors from the visa waiver program nations spent $69 billion here last year and adding 11 other nations would boost that to $110 billion.
But despite claims from the Department of Homeland Security, Smith doesn’t believe that the nations trying to win the waiver meet post-9/11 security standards. “Chairman Smith believes that since there are ongoing inherent security risks and unmet requirements, it makes no sense to expand the program at this time,” said a committee aide who cited a recent Government Accountability Office finding that half of the countries participating in the program have not met some of the security requirements mandated by Congress.
