[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 146 (Monday, September 11, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S5148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 925. Mr. McCAIN (for Mr. Rubio) submitted an amendment intended to 
be proposed by Mr. McCain to the bill H.R. 2810, to authorize 
appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for military activities of the 
Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense 
activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel 
strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was 
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the appropriate place, insert the following:

     SEC. __. TAIWAN TRAVEL POLICY.

       (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The Taiwan Relations Act (22 U.S.C. 3301 et seq.), 
     enacted in 1979, has continued for 37 years to be the 
     cornerstone of relations between the United States and Taiwan 
     and has served as an anchor for peace and security in the 
     Western Pacific area.
       (2) The Taiwan Relations Act declares that peace and 
     stability in the Western Pacific area are in the political, 
     security, and economic interests of the United States and are 
     matters of international concern.
       (3) The United States considers any effort to determine the 
     future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by 
     boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of 
     the Western Pacific and of grave concern to the United 
     States.
       (4) Taiwan has succeeded in a momentous transition to 
     democracy beginning in the late 1980s and has been a beacon 
     of democratic practices in Asia, and Taiwan's democratic 
     achievements inspire many countries and people in the region.
       (5) Visits to a country by United States cabinet members 
     and other high-ranking officials are an indicator of the 
     breadth and depth of ties between the United States and that 
     country.
       (6) Since the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act, 
     relations between the United States and Taiwan have suffered 
     from insufficient high-level communication due to the self-
     imposed restrictions that the United States maintains on 
     high-level visits with Taiwan.
       (b) Sense of Congress; Statement of Policy.--
       (1) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
     the United States Government should not place any 
     restrictions on the travel of officials at any level of the 
     United States Government to Taiwan to meet their Taiwanese 
     counterparts or on the travel of high-level officials of 
     Taiwan to enter the United States to meet with officials of 
     the United States.
       (2) Statement of policy.--It should be the policy of the 
     United States--
       (A) to allow officials at all levels of the United States 
     Government, including cabinet-level national security 
     officials, general officers, and other Executive Branch 
     officials, to travel to Taiwan to meet their Taiwanese 
     counterparts;
       (B) to allow high-level officials of Taiwan to enter the 
     United States, under conditions that demonstrate appropriate 
     respect for the dignity of such officials, and to meet with 
     officials of the United States, including officials from the 
     Department of State and the Department of Defense and other 
     cabinet agencies; and
       (C) to encourage the Taipei Economic and Cultural 
     Representative Office, and any other instrumentality 
     established by Taiwan, to conduct business in the United 
     States, including activities that involve participation by 
     Members of Congress, officials of Federal, State, or local 
     governments of the United States, or any high-level official 
     of Taiwan.
       (c) Authority.--Officials at all levels of the United 
     States Government, including cabinet-level national security 
     officials, general officers, and other Executive Branch 
     officials, are hereby authorized to travel to Taiwan to meet 
     their Taiwanese counterparts.
       (d) Semiannual Reports.--Not later than 180 days after the 
     date of the enactment of this Act, and every 180 days 
     thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit to the 
     Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the 
     Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives 
     a report on travel by United States Executive Branch 
     officials to Taiwan.
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