[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4720-4721]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  WESTERN HEMISPHERE TRAVEL INITIATIVE

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak about this 
important amendment on the Western Hemisphere travel initiative.
  The Western Hemisphere travel initiative was authorized in the 
Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 based on the 
recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.
  It mandates that the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, implement 
a new documentation program validating citizenship by January 1, 2008. 
Once executed, all U.S. citizens crossing the Canadian or Mexican 
Border into the United States will be required to carry a passport or 
other accepted documentation, such as a passcard, in order to verify 
their citizenship.
  The DHS and the State Department are in the process of promulgating 
rules to implement this initiative and are considering executing the 
air and sea portion of this initiative by next January.
  While the need to tighten security at our borders is an important 
undertaking, I am concerned that in their haste to accomplish this 
mission pursuant to a congressionally mandated timeline, DHS and the 
State Department may be overlooking serious concerns about the 
implementation of this initiative raised by border States and Canada.
  They are evaluating two options in order to identify citizenship. The 
first would require a person entering the United States to present a 
passport. However, passports are expensive and require weeks to 
acquire. The second alternative is the issuance of a passcard, which 
would be slightly cheaper but would still require a background check 
and could only be used for travel between Canada, the United States, 
and Mexico.
  Each of these options assumes that DHS and the State Department are 
able to process the flood of requests for passports and passcards. 
There is no reasonable way they could get all of these requests 
processed by the deadline, thereby adversely affecting travel and 
business for millions.
  Take for example a military family reassigned from the lower 48 to 
Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, who has to drive from the lower 48 
through Canada with all of their belongings. This family may not have 
the opportunity or funds to acquire passport before traveling.
  Alaska is the only State in the Nation that you have to pass through 
a foreign country to get to by land. I have a lot of concerns about how 
this initiative will affect travel.
  Each year, a large number of people travel to Alaska from the lower 
48 on the Alaska-Canada Highway, also known as the Al-Can. Each summer, 
we routinely see large numbers of RV's on the road with license plates 
from New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, California, everywhere. They are 
now going to need this card or a passport to get to another State. I 
worry about how that will affect our tourism, as well as the 
opportunity for Americans to visit one of the most beautiful places in 
this country.
  These are just some of the situations which need to be considered 
before implementing this plan. I believe that DHS and the State 
Department are operating under an unrealistic time frame imposed by the 
act. We need to ensure that they have enough time to properly test and 
implement the system, which includes biometrics and new equipment for 
the borders, to ensure its effectiveness.
  We share a special relationship with our friends in Canada, and I 
would hate to see a hastily imposed initiative negatively affect 
movement in and out of

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Canada, or negatively affect our relationship with our neighbors.
  The deadline Congress gave DHS is fast approaching, and with little 
progress made so far. I think we need to pass this amendment to give 
DHS more time.
  There is just too much at stake to rush this, and I urge my 
colleagues to support this amendment.

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