[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
FTO PASSPORT REVOCATION ACT OF 2017;
AND COUNTERTERRORISM SCREENING AND
ASSISTANCE ACT OF 2017
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MARKUP
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, NONPROLIFERATION, AND TRADE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
H.R. 425 and H.R. 1196
__________
JULY 19, 2017
__________
Serial No. 115-44
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TED POE, Texas KAREN BASS, California
DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina AMI BERA, California
MO BROOKS, Alabama LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
PAUL COOK, California TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
RON DeSANTIS, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
TED S. YOHO, Florida DINA TITUS, Nevada
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois NORMA J. TORRES, California
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois
DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
Wisconsin TED LIEU, California
ANN WAGNER, Missouri
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida
FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida
BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
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Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade
TED POE, Texas, Chairman
JOE WILSON, South Carolina WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts
DARRELL E. ISSA, California LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
PAUL COOK, California BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania DINA TITUS, Nevada
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York NORMA J. TORRES, California
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois
THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia
C O N T E N T S
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Page
MARKUP ON
H.R. 425, To authorize the revocation or denial of passports to
individuals affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations,
and for other purposes......................................... 2
Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 425 offered by
the Honorable Ted Poe, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Texas, and chairman, Subcommittee on Terrorism,
Nonproliferation, and Trade.................................. 5
H.R. 1196, To require a plan to combat international travel by
terrorists and foreign fighters, accelerate the transfer of
certain border security systems to foreign partner governments,
establish minimum international border security standards,
authorize the suspension of foreign assistance to countries not
making significant efforts to comply with such minimum
standards, and for other purposes.............................. 8
Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 1196 offered by
the Honorable Lee M. Zeldin, a Representative in Congress
from the State of New York................................... 25
APPENDIX
Markup notice.................................................... 46
Markup minutes................................................... 47
Markup summary................................................... 48
FTO PASSPORT REVOCATION ACT OF 2017; AND COUNTERTERRORISM SCREENING AND
ASSISTANCE ACT OF 2017
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:00 p.m., in
room 2200 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ted Poe (chairman
of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Poe. The subcommittee will come to order. Now that we
have eight members, we can proceed on the two markups.
After the conclusion of this brief business meeting, we
will proceed immediately to our scheduled hearing on Saudi
Arabia's Troubling Educational Curriculum.
Pursuant to notice, we will need to consider two bipartisan
measures this afternoon. As members were notified yesterday, it
is the intention of the Chair to consider today's business en
bloc so that we can proceed promptly to our hearing. So,
without objection, we will proceed en bloc.
All members may have 5 days to insert remarks into the
record and, without objection, the following members' measures
and amendments will be considered: H.R. 425, the FTO Passport
Revocation Act of 2017; the Poe Amendment in the Nature of a
Substitute to H.R. 425; H.R. 1196, the Counterterrorism
Screening and Assistance Act of 2017; and the Zeldin Amendment
in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 1196.
[The information referred to follows:]H.R.
425 deg.
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Mr. Poe. Before turning to our ranking member, I now
recognize myself to speak on today's two bills. The two
bipartisan bills today before us, H.R. 425 and 1196, address
dangerous issues: Terrorists and foreign fighter travel.
H.R. 425, the FTO Passport Revocation Act that Ranking
Member Keating and myself introduced will authorize the
Secretary of State to revoke passports of those Americans who
have aided and abetted terrorist organizations. This will help
prevent American citizens with evil designs to exploit the
privilege of a U.S. passport to support the murderous cause of
terrorism.
Mr. Zeldin's important bill, H.R. 1196, the
Counterterrorism Screening and Assistance Act of 2017 will
increase U.S. engagement with partner nations and increase the
capacity to screen and prevent foreign fighter travel. We have
all seen the devastating results of lax security and
screenings, including most recently when the perpetrator of the
Manchester bombing returned from Libya, an ISIS hotspot, days
before the attack.
These two measures will go a long way to securing our
homeland and protecting our allies around the world. I
encourage all members to vote in favor of these two important
pieces of legislation.
I will now yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts, the
ranking member, Mr. Keating.
Mr. Keating. Thank you, Chairman Poe and thank you for
bringing forward those two important pieces of legislation.
H.R. 425, the FTO Passport Revocation Act of which I am
proud to join you as a cosponsor, is straightforward. This bill
would authorize the Secretary of State to refuse to issue a
passport to or revoke the passport of an individual who is
affiliated with aiding, assisting, or abetting an organization
the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist
organization with certain exceptions, including emergency
circumstances, humanitarian reasons, and law enforcement
purposes. I appreciate your leadership on this issue and your
attention to streamlining the changes between this bill and the
House-passed version from last Congress.
H.R. 1196, the Counterterrorism Screening and Assistance
Act introduced by our colleague, Mr. Zeldin, is a product of
the House Homeland Security Committee's Foreign Fighters Task
Force. As many of us know, the task force completed and
published a review of foreign fighter travel and threats in
2016. This bill, a version of which passed the House under
suspension last year, seeks to improve U.S. programs to
strengthen foreign governments' efforts to disrupt terrorist
and foreign fighter travel. I am particularly appreciative of
your willingness to continue to work with me and members of the
subcommittee to further improve this legislation.
It is important that we do not penalize our foreign
partners for their efforts, promote peace at home, and that we
ensure any foreign assistance authorized to be suspended under
this bill is not detrimental to our security concerns.
I look forward to working with you to this end and thank
you for your commitment. I yield back.
Mr. Poe. Do any other members wish to seek recognition? The
Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York, Mr. Zeldin.
Mr. Zeldin. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the
subcommittee's consideration of my legislation today.
Sadly, we have seen terrorist attacks in Europe over the
last 3 years, which have killed hundreds of people and were
largely carried about by European nationals. Some of the
perpetrators of these attacks traveled to train and fight in
Syria and returned to Europe through Greece and Turkey.
Although some of the attackers were already known to local
authorities, they were able to move across borders without
detection and, in some cases, used fraudulent passports.
Given the high number of foreign fighters returning from
ISIS strongholds in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere, there is a
recognized need for improved border security information-
sharing between governments.
The lack of a United States governmentwide risk-based
approach increases the odds that systematic security gaps
abroad may persist and that United States response efforts will
not maximized in order to close these gaps. Failure to
effectively coordinate capacity-building activities also
results in greater risk of overlap, waste, and unnecessary
duplication between the United States and international
programs.
To help solve this program problem, I introduced H.R. 1196,
the Counterterrorism Screening and Assistance Act of 2017. This
effort is very similar to H.R. 4314 from the 114th Congress,
which passed the house by a 371 to 2 vote on March 21, 2016.
H.R. 1196 mandates a report card which will assess foreign
governments' respective border security efforts. My bill would
also require the President to submit a plan to Congress, which
would catalog ongoing initiatives and programs with the goal of
enhancing the partner and country capacities of interdicting
terrorist activities and foreign fighter travel. The plan will
also identify areas for improvement and steps that will be
taken to address any concerns.
H.R. 1196 would also require the Department of State and
Department of Homeland Security to accelerate the delivery of
certain border security systems prioritizing delivery to
countries of greatest concern and risk for foreign fighter or
terrorist travel. When possible, the U.S. will attempt to
collect reimbursement for transferred equipment and all
equipment transfers will comply with existing regulations
related to the export of sensitive technologies.
The Department of State and Department of Homeland Security
will also be required to submit an annual report to Congress
detailing how countries are meeting the minimum of border
security standards established within the Act. The report will
assess partner country efforts over the previous 12 months and
identify areas for improvement.
Further, the bill would put in place a monitoring system
that would screen for infectious diseases to contain and
prevent any potential outbreaks, which will help quarantine
viruses by authorizing the Secretary of Homeland Security to
provide the necessary equipment and supplies to mitigate the
risk or threat of infectious diseases such as Zika.
Finally, H.R. 1196 would allow the Secretary of State, in
consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, to
suspend all nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign
assistance to any country deemed not to meet the minimum border
security standards set forth in the bill.
Senators Marco Rubio and Chris Coons have introduced a
companion bill in the Senate, which is Senate Bill 942.
I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House
and our friends in the Senate to pass and send this bill to the
President.
Again, I would like to thank you, Chairman, and the ranking
member for your hard work and efforts in considering this
legislation today and I yield back.
Mr. Poe. I thank the gentleman from New York.
Does any other member wish to be recognized?
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr.
Wilson.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Chairman Judge Ted Poe, for your
leadership. I am grateful to support the bills in today's
markup. I always appreciate being in the presence of Chairman
Frank Wolf of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Recently, we have seen a rise in the terrorist threats
coming from returned foreign fighters and homegrown terrorists,
as the Islamic State uses their extensive digital network to
promote violent extreme messaging in an effort to recruit in
Western nations, including in the United States.
I was grateful to introduce an amendment to this year's
National Defense Authorization Act last week that would counter
the propaganda and fundraising efforts that are used to recruit
Americans to join terrorist groups as foreign fighters. We
should also have penalties for American citizens who join the
fight against freedom, democracy, and human dignity, including
the revocation or denial of a United States passport. We also
need to establish minimum border security standards to combat
international travel by foreign terrorist fighters. The bills
before the subcommittee today do just that by working in a
comprehensive manner to address both the causes of foreign
terrorist fighters and their movements so that we can protect
American families.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Poe. Any other members wish to be heard? Seeing none,
the question occurs on the items mentioned en bloc.
All those in favor, say aye.
All those opposed, no.
In the opinion of the Chair, the ayes have it. The measures
considered en bloc are agreed to.
Without objection, the measures considered en bloc will be
ordered favorably to the full committee, as amended. The staff,
as decided, are directed to make technical and conforming
changes.
This concludes our markup. The subcommittee stands
adjourned on the markup.
[Whereupon, at 2:45 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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