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Federal Security Official Touts New Policies

by Allecia Vermillion

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The nearly 3 million foreign visitors who arrive in Las Vegas each year mean tourism dollars for businesses but potential terrorism threats for the Department of Homeland Security.

The complications of complying with security have been keeping foreign tourists away from meccas such as Las Vegas, hotel and travel executives said.

But a Homeland Security official gave an upbeat presentation Wednesday to a House subcommittee, saying new initiatives will help arrivals clear customs without significant delays.

"We are crafting policies aimed at encouraging business and leisure travel," while minimizing threats to national security, C. Stewart Verdery Jr. told members of the commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee.

Verdery oversees the department's border and transportation security agencies.

"If travel is disrupted because outside visitors believe travel to the United States is too inconvenient, we will experience a devastating effect on our economy," Verdery said.

One of the department's priorities is easing the transition to new visa requirements. Under current law, citizens of 27 friendly foreign countries may visit the United States for less than 90 days without obtaining a visa.

Beginning Oct. 26, these countries must begin issuing machine-readable passports that contain a digital picture of the traveler, along with a biometric identifier such as a fingerprint or eye scan. This verifies that the traveler matches the person on the passport and allows customs agents to match passengers with terrorism suspects.

Congress pushed this deadline back from its original 2003 date, but Verdery said it will take another two years for nonvisa countries to produce these new passports. He said machines to read them will be in U.S. airports by the end of 2005.

But Fred Lounsberry, a senior vice president with the Orlando, Fla.-based Universal Studios Recreation Group, said that absent of a U.S.-backed marketing effort, "visitors fear they are going to be waiting in line come Oct. 27."

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas reports the city had more than 35.5 million domestic and international visitors last year, who spent almost $33 billion.

Lounsberry said the U.S. share of international travel has been dropping in the past few years, even without factoring in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

More than 13.5 million visitors, or 46 percent of foreign arrivals, came from these 27 visa-waiver countries last year, the Department of Homeland Security reports.

Since the United States began collecting pictures and fingerprints of visitors from most other countries in January 2003, Verdery said, customs has screened 5.4 million passengers and identified 651 known or suspected criminals.

Travelers might not even notice another security measure enacted last month. The Border and Transportation Security agency has reached an agreement with the European Union permitting the legal transfer of passenger data from U.S.-bound flights.

Verdery said the arrangement improves safety and speed by getting this information to customs before the flight takes off, rather than when passengers arrive in the United States.

Also, domestic travelers will soon be able to leverage fingerprints and pictures to speed passage through airport security checkpoints.

Beginning next week at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the Department of Homeland Security will test a new program that allows registered travelers who apply for similar machine-readable cards to use designated express security lanes.

Congressmen were enthusiastic about the program, particularly committee Chairman Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.

"I'm willing to be fingerprinted and eye-printed and back-searched and everything else if it helps me get through the airport," he said.

Beginning in July, airports in Los Angeles, Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C., will also participate in the test program.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, travel and tourism make up 3.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product and are responsible for more than 17 million jobs.

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