{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://fischbach.house.gov/2021/11/rep-fischbach-introduced-stop-the-grinch-act", "Rep. Fischbach introduced STOP the GRINCH Act", "2021-11-19", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "House", "MN", "Michelle Fischbach", "F000470", "fischbach.house.gov", "fischbach", "https://fischbach.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "By Omri Nahmias\n\nA bipartisan group of House members sent a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, urging them to add Israel to the Visa Waiver Program.\n\nRepresentatives Lee Zeldin (R-New York), Kathleen Rice (D-New York), Michelle Fischbach (R-Minnesota), Grace Meng (D-New York), Brian Mast (R-Florida) and Elaine Luria (D-Virginia) spearheaded the letter, with an additional 52 members signing it.\n\n\u201cWe write to you in support of Israel\u2019s participation in US Customs and Border Protection\u2019s (CBP) Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which allows citizens and nationals of participating countries to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa,\u201d the lawmakers wrote on Monday. \u201cWe are encouraged by Secretary Mayorkas\u2019s remarks last month confirming that Israel is in the \u2018pipeline\u2019 to be added to the program. These remarks follow a bilateral meeting in August between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, where Israel\u2019s participation in the VWP was discussed.\u201d\n\nAccording to the lawmakers, Israeli travelers account for $1.2 billion in spending annually, with an average of $4,000 in personal spending per trip.\n\n\u201cIsrael\u2019s participation in this program would grow the US economy, strengthen national security at each of our borders, and increase opportunities for people-to-people exchange, which bolsters our already unique bilateral relationship,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cWe know you share in the goal of ensuring that the benefits that the Visa Waiver Program promises to US tourism, to our country\u2019s national security, and to the US-Israel relationship are realized. We therefore urge you to expediently add Israel to the Visa Waiver Program and provide an update to Congress on the status of the current negotiations.\u201d\n\nInterior Minister Ayelet Shaked met with Mayorkas last week to discuss the visa waiver, and said afterward that the process to grant visa exemptions will not be finished before 2023.\n\n\u201cThere is a mutual desire for this to succeed,\u201d she said, and that the two decided to establish governmental teams to tackle the remaining challenges. The US team will visit Israel in January, and Shaked and Mayorkas will follow up once a month.\n\n\u201cWe agreed that a team of US officials will arrive in Israel in January to discuss additional details that need to be worked out,\u201d Shaked said. \u201cWe have two primary tasks: the first is to establish a system that would allow the US immigration officers to check if a certain person who seeks entry has a criminal record \u2013 the US could inquire about some 1,000 Israelis a year. It would require us to make some adjustments, such as a legislative change to allow the US to access our criminal records system.\u201d\n\nThe second task, she said, is to lower Israel\u2019s refusal rates to 3% by next September.\n\n\u201cThere are several things that can be done to meet this threshold,\u201d Shaked noted. \u201cFor example, we asked Mayorkas\u2019s team that if a person opens a visa application but ends up not submitting it, [that] it wouldn\u2019t count as a refusal. Today, such cases count as if a person who did not complete the form was rejected.\n\n\u201cAnother cause for refusal is the high volume of applicants in their early 20s. [Former ambassador to Washington] Gilad Erdan raised this issue in his meetings at the DHS, and explained that in Israel, many people in their 20s are going on a long trip after army service.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://fischbach.house.gov/2021/11/rep-fischbach-introduced-stop-the-grinch-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.953454989939928, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}