releases: https://medium.com/@RepBetoORourke/vote-explanation-for-the-visa-waiver-program-improvement-and-terrorist-travel-prevention-act-h-r-e18543d7d9b?source=rss-964ef69221bc------2
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| https://medium.com/@RepBetoORourke/vote-explanation-for-the-visa-waiver-program-improvement-and-terrorist-travel-prevention-act-h-r-e18543d7d9b?source=rss-964ef69221bc------2 | Vote Explanation For The Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act (H.R. | 2015-12-09 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Democrat | House | TX | Beto O'Rourke | O000170 | medium.com | legacy | Vote Explanation For The Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act (H.R.158) 12/09/2015 Yesterday I voted for the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act (H.R. 158). This bipartisan legislation is a smart way to help protect Americans from terrorism by strengthening security weaknesses in our Visa Waiver Program. At present the program allows passport holders from 38 countries around the world to travel to the United States for up to 90 days, without a visa. These countries are mainly in Europe and include our closest allies, including the United Kingdom, Italy, and France. It has been positive for our economy, especially in the tourism industrycreating $190 billion in economic output and supporting a million jobs here at home. For all its economic benefits, there are security problems we must fix. For example, some of these 38 countries are not sharing counterterrorism information as fast as wed like. Also, most of the travelers from these countries are not thoroughly screened through INTERPOL (an international policing organization that helps track criminals and terrorists around the world). Even more concerning, there are an estimated 5,000 Europeans from Visa Waiver Program countries that have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq. This legislation helps fix these problems by: - Requiring foreigners traveling to America to have a fraud resistant E-Passport. These passports are tougher to fake, and will make it harder for terrorists to enter the United States; - Denying Visa Waiver Program status to travelers who have gone to places like Syria, Iraq and other nations that attract terrorism and terrorist groups. They would have to go through a much more rigorous process at one of our consulates to apply for a standard visa; - Denying Visa Waiver Program status to travelers with dual nationality in said countries; - Ends the Visa Waiver Program for countries that dont screen travelers with the INTERPOL and terrorism databases; and - Ending the Visa Waiver Program with countries that dont share counterterrorism information with us. This bill passed the House by a large majority. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |