Without further a do, but like to introduce secretary michael chertoff, the cofounder of the chertoff group. He was the secretary of the department of Homeland Security. He took that job at a very difficult time and frankly, remade the organization and brought it up to a status where it was extremely effective. I say that as having been the department of defense counterpart to dhs during my time as deputy assistant. I have the opportunity to work extensively with the secretarys folks and quite a few rather interesting events both natural and manmade. He is also a former federal judge for the u. S. Court of appeals for the Third Circuit and was a federal prosecutor who conducted the investigation of the 9 11 terrorist attacks. With that, i will ask secretary chertoff to join us. [applause] steve. K you, good to see some familiar faces in the crowd and veterans. One of the things i did when i was secretary of Homeland Security is i was engaged in expanding the visa waiver 2007, 2008ch in expected to incorporate a number of nations and Central Europe. In two dozen eight, had the opportunity to go around and meet with the leaders of those countries. It was a remarkable experience. It was one of the highlights of my professional tenure at the department because i was made aware of how meaningful that inclusion into the Visa Waiver Program was to the citizens of those countries. I was told whether it was the baltics or the Czech Republic, slovakia that the inclusion of these countries was the final step in recognizing their migration from being under the control of the former soviet union into becoming full members of the association of freedom loving and democratic states. It was not just an economic or travel issue, it was a moral and political issue for these countries. By the way, if you ever want to go toence real gratitude, a country which has been admitted into the program and see how even everyday people told they are finally in the category is equivalent of that we have had when the program started. Even my barber here in the u. S. Points from korea made a of saying the next time i want to get my haircut thank you very much for it meeting korea to the Visa Waiver Program. It was very meaningful. Im here to talk about the program not in light of my experience in 2008 but in where we are now. Obviously, we are in a dangerous place in the world. Perhaps, more dangerous than any time in the last 10 years. A couple of years after the events of 9 11. That is because of the proliferation of terrorist groups really ranging from parts of africa all the way east into afghanistan and pakistan. A notable element of what we have seen in the last year or so has been the rise of groups like thatin syria and iraq delivery recruit deliberately recruit westerners in order to have them not only train and participate in terrorist activities in the middle east or in africa, but also to prepare people who may come back to United States the United States and western europe and try attacks in those locations. Of thecently, we learned individual who attacked the jewish facility in belgium was a frenchman who engaged in activities with isis in syria and iraq before he went back to western europe. This raises the question of security of travel and the security we have with respect to visitors. Suggestedt some have maybe we need to revisit the Visa Waiver Program. Im here to say that that would be a huge mistake. It will be the equivalent of trying to conduct an operation would acquiring a scalpel by using a chainsaw. Youll end up killing the patient at as well. I think within the Visa Waiver Program, we can be more effective. To take a few minutes to lay out what i see as the benefits to the United States of having a vigorous and effective Visa Waiver Program and talk about a few of the things we might do to make sure that we can continue to protect ourselves even within the framework of the program. First, and needs to be clear that the Visa Waiver Program is not a program that allows anybody willynilly to come into the United States. When we in the argument of the expansion of the program several element we had an the Electronic System of travel authorization. This is a very simple and straightforward process that requires Visa Waiver Program participants both the new and existing members requires their citizens periodically to file online with the u. S. Government a brief statement about the their particulars the kinds of things we collect at the border itself, but to do so in advance. What that does is it creates an opportunity for our government to look at the details of somebodys birthday, address, things like that. Determine whether what is based on the intelligence is, this person poses a risk perhaps that requires a closer look. It is a very unobtrusive and convenient way to collect information in advance that we need to collect only when somebody arrives in the u. S. That gives us the opportunity to analyze that kind of basic data so that we can determine whether people are maybe red flagged. Added to that, we have the capabilities now through our ability to review and analyze passenger name record information which is basic travel data about peoples address, Contact Information and travel route. By combining this, we are able to take a deeper look at the kinds of connections or contacts that might suggest somebody is a themthat we can then pull when they arrive. These have been very powerful in allowing us to avoid the problem of people coming in as operatives from overseas because we have an early warning. That applies to respect with western europeans and those from other parts of the world. Now there are some other benefits we get from the Visa Waiver Program that are a little visibility. Er one of them is increasing solidarity that the Program Gives us with countries in europe and Central Europe. It will not escape through notice that we are in a time now maybe for the first time in many years that there is a Serious National Security issue on the european continent. I am talking about what is going on in ukraine and the various threatening noises that have been made from time to time from mr. Putin. From a strategic standpoint, it would be eight National Security a National Security, problem of the first order of the countries of Central Europe began to feel they were being isolated and cut loose from the very time when russia is making noises about expanding its sphere of influence and power. One of the things the Program Allows us to do with these countries is to reaffirm our solidarity in our belief that the new democracies of europe are every bit a part of the as familiarrprise democracies like england, france and germany. Sense ofng that solidarity, particularly at this moment, as a critical importance to americans and all nato National Security alliance. There is economic benefit. Centrality for europeans and koreans and others to travel to the u. S. And for us to travel to their countries without the need to get a visa facilitates trade, Economic Activity and even cultural exchange. But take a time when the global fragile climate remains and recovery is uneven to say the least, promoting Economic Development has a positive benefit for this country as well as the countries that we travel to or that have citizens that travel to us. Are we saying about these new threats with respect to foreign fighters . One point to be made is that with respect to american to go to iraq and syria to fight with that isgo to somalia, not a visa waiver issue because these are american citizens who are entitled to come back to the u. S. And they dont need a visa under any circumstances. What we need to do to identify these returning fighters and the same principle applies to fighters who are coming via western European Countries and then traveling into the u. S. What we need to do is have a judicious and analytically sound information of the travelers that allows us to identify patterns of behavior and connections that suggest we need to take a closer look. That may be email contacts that turn up connected to emails of terrorists. It may be telephone Contact Numbers that we have previously identified. It may be behavior in terms of travel patterns that suggests somebody has gone perhaps to the middle east. Been there for several months and emerges and we dont have a clear picture of where they were. That as i do say that is necessarily proof of guilt, but it is proof we need to look a little more closely. Likebility to use programs that to collect information, the ability to use what weve been doing in respect to passenger name record information as a way of identified patterns that require a closer look this is exactly the kind of scalpel that we need to use in order to identify those who might be a risk in terms of terrorist activity and to then take a closer look at them. You an idea of how effective this can be we look back at the 9 11 hijackers after we put this program into affect. We wanted to see if we had the current programs we had in place prior to september 2001 whether we wouldve picked up connections among the 19 hijackers. When we ran the current programs retrospectively, we discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers we wouldve found connections to. We wouldve found some of those i think there are a couple other things we can do. We have begun to expand overseas. We have preclearance in ireland. I know the department of Homeland Security is looking at preclearance in other areas. The thing with preclearance is is it is a program where it is a country overseas. In an put officials overseas airport and effectively they conduct immigration and customs before people boarded the plane. That is a convenience to the people that come to the u. S. Because they dont longer have to come to a gateway that is a customs presence in the u. S. They can travel directly to other cities but it is a benefit to us excuse me because we get an early look at the people coming into the United States. We get not only to look at the paper records and whenever we are able to collect, but we are able to have trained officers look facetoface and examined the people who want to come into the u. S. To determine whether their behavior suggest questionable activity. That is an extra level of protection for us. It is also a convenience for the traveler because if you have to , we can catch it before the person gets on the airplane. That creates an extra level of security with respect to aviation security. Preclearance is a winwinwin for the u. S. Government, the traveling public and the countries that are hosting our preclearance program. A second thing we can do in order to make sure that we have the full benefit of what our current protective programs are with respect to this waiver, is to continue to support what is being done in the can intelligence community. To collect information about telephone numbers, email addresses overseas that are potentially connected to dangerous terrorists. You need to look at the content to recognize that when you have a particular ip address or phone number that u. S. Previously seen related to terrorist financing activity or even operational activity, anybody that connects with that number you need to take a closer look at. Could there be an innocent reason . There could be, but at the very least, it puts you on notice that you should be asking more questions. One of the things i try to say when that subject comes up about dealing with isis an increased risk of foreign fighters is this is not the time to handicap or dismantle our intelligence collection programs using nsa and other intelligence agencies that have been the cornerstone of protecting the United States since 2001. It has made it much more difficult for the enemy. It has yielded concrete results and at a time that we need this more than ever because of what is going on, we dont want to reduce our capability in this area. In conclusion, i will take a couple minutes of questions. I think the Visa Waiver Program is a plusplus for our National Security and for the economic security. I think we have constructed a program that makes it a reduction of vulnerability very powerful. There are some additional things we can do and are doing to enhance our ability to protect ourselves. The way to deal with the issue of foreign fighters is to use the scalpel of identifying the precision and taking them out and not a chainsaw of dismantling a program that is not only served the United States well but our foreign allies overseas. I am happy to take a few questions. Yes . Thank you for speaking here today. What else is there they look at that can help identify the bad guys, for lack of a better word, then emails or phone numbers . Is there any other data this Program Allows the government to look at . Yes. I am not going to tell you what the suspects look like. The answer is yes. Yes . Mr. Secretary, you mentioned the value in the preclearance program. Looking at the person facetoface. Go back to the visa process. What purpose, if any, does the traditional interview to get a visa serve and is that the value of the facetoface interview lost because not everybody goes through this preclearance process . Y of these are arrivals what value does the divisional visa interview have in counterterrorism . It is supposed to look at a number of different things. It has value in terms of it is aerrorism but different context where it was designed to detect people who might come to the u. S. And overstay and not leave. A lot of it was focused on what are your roots back home, what is your reason for coming things like that. People show in a vase of nest or nervousness. It does not show you exactly what that does but it tells you it is something you should look at closely. The visa interview adds a certain dimension but on balance, it does not really give you the kind of granularity you get with the data and analytics that are far in advance than we were before. The look at the tradeoff, positive benefit of the program and the marginal issue of in terms of protection i think the marginal cost is very sm all. The benefit remains very powerful. I will take two more. Thank you. When you see efforts in congress right now some democrats and republicans have even signed on to suspend the Visa Waiver Program. How do you go about talking to them about that . What you said today would you even be able to fathom suspending something that is letting millions of people 3. 8 million brits last year. Do we have staff that can do the type of work that can replace it . If we dont, how long will that take how much money are we talking about . Can you go over some of those however weak they maybe . If you started to visualize what the consequences of turning this protest terminating this program would be of terminating this program would be, it is hard to figure out the cost. There would be an immediate drop off of travel. That would not only affect tourism, it would affect Economic Activity. All those people would wind up going to the visa process. As you observe quite rightly, we have to to staff up tremendously in terms of pity putting people overseas to manage the demand for visas. And that would have a serious impact on the federal budget. We would be shooting a trip he does right into the ships a torpedo into the economy if we did not do that. I am confident it measures the impact on the Global Economy and the u. S. Economy almost instantly. We would irritate our friends and allies who we go to for help when we put together a coalition. Boost would really give a to mr. Putin who will turn to the Central Europeans and the baltics and say see, they told you they were friends of yours but they did you at the first sign of trouble. Of cannot calculate the cost our National Security and the cost of the economic benefit and our federal budget in terminating this program. One more and then your answer regarding the facetoface interview and the importance of that makes me think that perhaps we would be best off making the continuance of the program for eight particular country contention of them implementing the preclearance so that we would be sure we have the facetoface interview on an ongoing basis. Preclearance can be a useful addition. Money and thethe capability to really go into preclearance in all the visa waiver countries. For people worried about the budget, there is a limit to how much money you have to spend. Again, wall that facetoface element is a useful element, it is by no means essential. The most important tools you have are the tools of intelligence collection and analysis. If you get a nervous person, that facetoface is helpful. But, if youre looking at the marginal benefit versus the marginal cost, i think the cost of doing it for every visa waiver country is far exceeding the benefit. Thank you. Take a minute to thank the secretary. [applause] ok, i asked the panelists to come forward. I think the secretary has been a great job of establishing the issues that we are attempting to deal with here this morning. I guess it is afternoon now, sorry. We have a lot of wellmeaning people over on capitol hill and were sayingators the Visa Waiver Program needs to be terminated, suspended, Something Like that. That was the genesis of doing this event. Of thehave a panel, two three panelists, the third one will arrive shortly. I would like to introduce them and get them started. You will notice when the third panelist shows up. We will start with my colleague, david and sarah, who are the specificallyciates tasked with doing all of the Homeland Security issues for heritage. Specializes in cyber and immigration issues but he is responsible for all of it. He gets a do all of the work. To do all of the work. He would be followed by adam sacks. He is the founder and president of to a resume economics Tourism Economics which is based on consulting for the sector. He is an expert and consultant to dealing with hard numbers on and ints and benefits some cases liabilities of certain programs and how they affect the very large economic sector to us which is the to a sector. Stewart baker is the third missing analysts. Steptoe andner with johnson but was the First Assistant secretary of the department of Homeland Security for policy. He is the guy that said most of these programs up under secretary chertoff. He is a leading commentator on many of these issues. For those of you that know him, i noticed a few laughs when i mentioned his large personality. He is a very outspoken person about whatever he chooses the speak about. Thing o the same each of the speakers will go about for five to seven minutes and we will go through all three of them and take questions at the end of that. I will moderate that part. Im trying to get as many questions as we can. Ask short ones with an actual question mark at the end and we will get through as many as possible. With that, we will start with david. Thanks. I want to really quickly describe what the Visa Waiver Program is, describe the benefits that were laid out before by the secretary and then discuss what are the next steps forward. First, what is vwp . The Visa Waiver Program allows residents from ever countries to visit the United States without a visa for up to 90 days for business or pleasure. To be a part of it, a country needs to meet several criteria. Acountry must have nonimmigrant refusal rate of less than 3 . A visa refusal rate is the percentage of visa applications that are denied by the state department for any country. It must issue its citizens secure biometric passports. The country must represent no discernible security or Law Enforcement risk to the country. There are 38 countries that are participating in visa waiver with chile being the most recent to join. As required by the program and other laws, these nations have agreed to two other stipulations to join vwp. They must share intelligence with us on known suspected terrorist, exchange biometric biographic immigrant information of criminals that could be coming. They need to share information on lost and stolen passports. They have to be increased own Airport Security requirements and a half to provide u. S. Citizens with reciprocal ability to travel to that country without a visa as well. These features greatly enhance security by providing u. S. Law enforcement and security agencies with more information and more intelligence on potential terrorists. The Visa Waiver Program makes it easier for u. S. Officials to know whether an individual could be eight security threat. The Program Allows the state department to focus its limited consular resources on those countries and individuals about who could be higher risk to the United States. Furthermore, the Visa Waiver Program is not without screening and security procedures. Every traveler from the u. S. Coming coming to the u. S. Must be free screened prescreened which checks various databases and analytics and checks to make sure they are not a Security Risk and eligible for entry. Additionally, every step from buying his ticket to showing up at the gate and landing in the u. S. , there are a series of checks. Process,int along that that the u. S. Official believes there is a Security Risk, they , iftake a deeper look and necessary, deny a persons entry into the United States. In terms of benefits, the first is security. Sharing, better Airport Security and focusing our resources. These improve u. S. Security. The u. S. Has had a continuing Major Economic benefits whether it be mixed trade and brings United States people to the United States and they can spend their money here as well as business man. Men here. For for important tool policy and public diplomacy. Allowing individuals to come to the United States and enjoy our country can improve the foreign publics understanding of america and our culture. By extending the privilege to other nations, it deepens the diplomatic ties we have with friendly governments as well. Should address some of the concerns specifically to the threat of isis. European passport holders having the, foreign fighters. Study thatere was a found a lot of the information sharing was not occurring. This is a valid reason for concern. It is premised on increasing information sharing and it is happening not happening, that is bad. It was time to hold these countries accountable if they do not share their information. Since then, the information sharing has increased dramatically. Earlier this year found nearly all countries were sharing nearly all data required. Officials point to the fact that all countries are sharing all information and now it is a question of working out the particulars of the Data Automation and how the information is actually being shared but it is occurring. Radicalized britons or germans or anyone from europe is certainly a great concern to any of our nations which are threatened by islamic terrorism, this is not a good reason to cancel the program. It promotes security through the information sharing arrangements. By canceling or suspending it, not only will be have the immediate economic harm, but we would also have less Information Available to us with which to make a visa decision and to watch out for suspected terrorists. What should the u. S. Do Going Forward . Foru. S. Should be looking ways to enhance information sharing arrangements, improve information we get all forms and make sure we use the appropriate mechanisms to expand our ability to screen individuals. Tose types of improvements not require the chainsaw, they require the scalpel. They can be made within the existing program. Second, the u. S. Should be looking to do dishes lee expand the visa way judiciously expand the Visa Waiver Program. The more information we have, the better able we are to work out the individuals who could be a threat to us. Expanding visa waiver would allow us to better focus our finite resources on other nations and individuals. The way to make this happen is to replace the visa refusal rate with some called the visa overstaty rate. Peoplehe percentage of who overstay their visa when coming to the United States. It is a better metric for determining immigration using this metric would allow more nations to join the visa will Waiver Program without threatening u. S. Security. It is worth mentioning that visa waiver and expansion has gotten caught up on the immigration debate. There is a reason why this commonsense changes and reforms and expansion of this program should be held hostage to more controversial elements. Congress should be considering Visa Waiver Program on its own merits and not the merits of amnesty. All of these benefits come with Visa Waiver Program is more valuable now than ever. The threat of isis and radicalized westerners is real and the u. S. Should be using all of its tools at its disposal to find and stop these terrorist. The Visa Waiver Program is one of those to and to stop it now would make the u. S. Less secure, prosperous and less engaged with friends and allies. We should be looking to improve and expand the program. Thank you. Thank you, david. Adam . Good afternoon. As the head of a company that does Economic Development in the travel industry, i will take an economic centric view of this issue. Ranu. S. Economy last year its deficit of 500 billion. Amidst this, one export sector stands out in contrast and that is the travel sector. The travel sector in this context is an export because the purchases of locally produced goods and services by foreign markets. Enjoyed in 80 billion surplus last year. Trade aser context of globalization has continued and manufacturing as shifted to lowcost areas of production, even though the u. S. Has found key areas of manufacturing competitiveness, the travel sector continues to compete at the highest level across the board. It is in this sector that we see the United States as eminently competitive. It is not just the way the trade surplus this 80 billion tourism is actually one of our largest exports and down. Hands down. 180 180 billion spent by foreign tourists. 136and beverage billion. Why is the u. S. Competing at such a high level . We work with clients around the world. Governments and offices in every continent. We see the way they view the United States as a competitor. Their research, the research we use in developing their strategies, shows the u. S. Is one of the most aspirational destinations in the world showing up within the top two were three bucket list destinations for travel markets from everywhere that you would want to attract this market. If you want to put that into context, how good are we at this . That 180 billion that was spent in the u. S. Positions us as the number one source of foreign visitors spending in the world. Who is number two . It is spain and spain is at just about a third of that 60 billion. That is how much better we are at this in terms of competing. There is an enormously competitive global market. Somehow within this, the u. S. Enjoys this intrinsic competitiveness. It is fundamentally the view of the way markets view us and how the u. S. Is talked about the u. S. Offers a product of diversity and quality. The stunning beauty, attractions, cultural and entertainment is unrivaled. And its another reason is the topic we are discussing which is the Visa Waiver Program. It is a significant part of why the u. S. Travel industry has been and is as successful as it is. If you want proof of this, let me share with you some case studies of what has happened when countries of entered into the Visa Waiver Program. Taiwan was accepted in the fall of 2012. 2013, visits from taiwan increased 33 . November 2008, a number of countries are granted access. Estonia, republic, republic of korea. They met the criteria. Over the following three year period, the collective group of these markets increased 46 . Nearly 50 increase. If you look at where they traveled elsewhere, maybe these markets were growing at a faster rate. They travel to other parts of the world fractionally. If you want to look at specific countries south korea grew 46 over the following two years. The Czech Republic grew 31 . Slovakia, 44 . This program has a significant impact. Within the competitive environment, resting on our morals much less stepping backward is clearly a bad option. Markets Serious Development going on around the world to compete for these visitors. Usaestablishment of brand has been a major step forward in being able to compete. But, they are competing against the global budget of destination markets so the tally is 4 billion. Other destinations are competing very strongly. The tide has been turned over the last few years in terms of market share, if you look since 2000 come the United States lost market share of global travel. It is lost market share from south america, europe and from asia. Products we the have been involved with have actually been helping governments around the world and contortions of regional ipac look such as a at how they can begin adopting more sensible and inclusive travel facilitation policies, including the Visa Waiver Program, so they can compete at a higher level. Other countries are surly on this track. Canada, the Czech Republic they allowed the Czech Republic to enter canada and arrivals increased 36 in the following years. Russia opened up to hong kong in 2009. The volume of arrival from hong kong to russia jumped 184 in the following three years. With this background, we can ask ourselves what will happen if the program were reversed or curtailed . You can reasonably assume it would be the opposite of the benefits we have realized. That also case studies countries it would wisely have restated these requirements and there are some examples. Canada renewed the Czech Republic in june 2009. After two years, they decided to reinstate the requirement. Arrivals from the Czech Republic to canada declined 70 . Canada also impose the visa requirement to mexico in june 2009. Mexican arrivals to canada dropped nearly 50 over the next three years. Imposed visa requirements on south africa in 2009. It ensued a decline of 30 from that market. Is with this background that visa requirements are fundamentally the selfimposed values of trade. The Visa Waiver Program benefited 31 of our overseas visitors last year. Even as these countries have been added over the last five or six years, the share of visa waiver countries that are represented in the total overseas volume has declined from 45 to where it stands at 41 . It is because emerging markets and highgrowth markets are the very ones that still require visa. Imposedents are still where Growth Opportunities still ain to be the greatest china, brazil, india, latin america and poland. There is nousion, question that security must be paramount but the need for seen withust not be conflict in the economic value that the opportunities the Visa Waiver Program affords us. If it is in reference to trade the market aessed few years ago for the center of research and found about 2. 5 of potential dedicates delegates, International Delegates were refused entry. That equated it to because of trade that takes place at these milliona loss of 2. 5 2. 5 billion. Leisure travel when visitors experienced a reality of the United States of america and not a caricature. What this leads us to is the really unavoidable conclusion that investments in the Visa Waiver Program should be made to make it as inclusive and secure as possible. Those investments will pay massive dividends. Remarks, i have unapologetically focused on the economics of this issue. Perhaps i will and with a higher level of one mark twain. Travel is fatal. Prejudice, bigotry. Many of our people needed sorely on these accounts. Thank you. Thank you very much, adam. Now appearing at precisely the right moment is my esteemed colleague. You need a visa to use massachusetts avenue. We have talked security, economics. You get to wrap up the panel. The headlines about the possibility that people will be missed using western passports are obviously quite pointed these days. The risk of terrorists coming iraq has syria and never been more of a concern. Council the un security resolution,nanimous is not easy to get anything travelus, on terrorist asking telling member countries to address foreign terrorist fighters by doing a variety of things. Preventing suspected fighters implementing, legislation to prosecute foreign terrorist fighters, to undertake various steps to improve International Cooperation such as sharing information on criminal investigations and prosecution. Thatll on that because turned out to be a surprisingly easy thing to get International Agreement on. The reason it was surprisingly easy is that the United States, over the last five to 10 years, has more or less imposed those kinds of measures on our vwp counterparts around the world. We now have arrangements in counterparts provide us with information that was never available before because we used the leverage to get everybody to do things that are more or less agreed was a good idea but theyd never wouldve done without something that drove them in the direction of actually doing it right now. One of the things that i think we can be pleased about was the bipartisanship that we saw in 2006 between a deeply Democratic Congress and president bush. In which the 9 11 legislation standardsd which sets for what you have to do to be in the vwp and where we will able expanded but set very high standards for security in the program and in connection with our counterparts abroad. That effort turned out to be remarkably successful. Pressurenation of about security inside the United States, the possibility that we would withdraw vwp status from people who cannot cooperate. At the same time, we were committed to actually have a vwp program by opening the program to Eastern Europe produced a consensus. The people who were coming in new are deeply enthusiastic about pretty much anything that the u. S. Ask them to do. Once they have signed onto all of the security measures, he became much more difficult for some of the countries where this was the bigger problem because either they were less enthusiastic allies or they had a bigger islamic population. In the long run, they had to come on board as well. We now receive information about criminal convictions from all of these countries which none of which gave to us before. We also put into place a program the european guess fraud is the nice relationship word at one point, they said that this thing where people have to make reservations to come to the country and fill out all these forms in advance and you might send them yes and tell them no even though they were a visa waiver country this is like in a clot electronic visa. I said why . You broke the code. What we have done in the program is take advantage of the electronic capabilities that the communications, the internet makes possible. Background Data Processing that allows us to say yes, we are open for business, but 99 point 9 of everybody who wants to come here from these countries we will tell you if you are in the. 1 before you get on the plane. The ability to do the background check even for people who in theory are coming here without a visa has transformed our ability to protect the United States from occasional bad guys who are coming from countries that are when i hear people worrying out loud about the vwp, i cannot help asking compared to what . Because the alternative would be to go back to i will not stay the state department is not in the 21st century they are sloping to provide the kind of background checks that are necessary for people coming from visa countries. They are doing personal interviews which has value but the idea they must do personal interviews for everybody from Great Britain or friends who want to come to the United States is something we dont want anybody from france or the United Kingdom to come here as you can imagine. If you have the choice of going on vacation to a place that required you to be interviewed before you can come and somebody says a just get on the plane and fly here instead, most people would choose the easier route. What we have done is made it much easier for people to go through the process. We are able to do deeper background analysis on most people because of the data we are getting from their home countries. Ourre not relying on he list of people, we have the list from the people that are closer to some of these people in the country. It seems to me rather than weusing on taking vwp away, should be asking what can we do, especially with the u. N. Resolution that everybody signed onto, what can we be doing to take those requirements and reinterpreting them in the vwp to saya growing we are going to implement all of that as part of the Visa Waiver Program and bring the rest of the developed world and some of the countries that want to be part of vwp along with it so we can get security and more travel at the same time. Ready . Ready to take questions for the panel. Ok, you get to go first again. Baker, wouldnt the people saying these foreign fighters that are from france and the u. K. Just an example they go to syria, train and come back and they dont have any criminal record. A young man there was nothing there to let us know. That is a greater concern than people who are known criminals or they have ties with their past because it seems like these are very young man. En and may not have something that are right flagged red flag. Ged. There is a requirement in the resolution to prosecute people. We used to prosecute people all the time for violating the reagan act or engaging in foreign wars. There is plenty of prece dent. The other point i would say is the french government, the u. K. Should be they feared of these people as we are. It is not a given they are coming back to france to buy tickets to new york. French intelligence, Law Enforcement is going to be watching for these folks, trying to identify them and keep track of them. We do need and we have pretty good, but i will not say perfect, exchanges of information about those folks. We have a Un Security Council resolution that says we should be sharing information. We should take that and say as part of our expectations, we want you to be sharing that information and we will share back to you the same kinds of information about americans who are traveling for the same purpose. Right. Right there. So, in the house hearing in september 10 discussing the Visa Waiver Program, mr. Miller and 300 applications had been denied this year alone for securityrelated reasons but 400 that were previously approved relator denied. Were later denied. Would you recommend expanding the data points requested from these countries because you just said we have told these countries before the passengers we havehe plane approved of them, but more being denied after the fact. I think we should look hard at that as well as expanding the kind of information we get so we can do a better job of using our own intelligence capabilities to identify people who should not becoming here. There are times where you say, ok, we can arrest of them but they are rare. Absolutely. The vwp gives us lots of leverage. It is leverage you want to use sparingly because it is a little bit of mutual destruction. If you take somebodys visa waiver status away from them, it will hurt you as much as it hurts them. You need to find things like exchanges of information that most governments recognize they ought to be doing, but they need some incentive, the need to be e to say to the opposition do share any information with the americans. They need to be able to say we cannot afford not to. We have a resolution and we dont want to put visa waiver at risk. If you recognize your leverage and use it sparingly, you can get more information both from governments and even requiring more information. I will add to that. Therecumstances change, is no reason to not look at changing the information that we ask for. The data points we change made we collect may change so that is something we should look at. If you are from the country that is not a member of the program like poland, you have to go through the visa interview and then you have a visa for 10 years. Then you can travel to the u. S. Whenever you want without any procedures and when the member of the country is in the program , each time you want to go you have to go through the procedure and give information about you, yes . In terms of security, which is system is better . It is a close call. You dont have to do it every time. You do it once every couple of years usually. The main difference between the main difference between the two is there an interview, but that could be a very short interview, and that is not necessarily produce a lot of information. To my mind, it is the choice between having good cooperation from the Intelligence Services and interior ministries of a country so that they are telling you who they are worried about, more they know about who is dangerous in their country than we do. If the choice is between that and doing interviews, i would take cooperation every time. Only are to that, not there information sharing aspect , but we talk about budgets. The state department only has so much money they can spend on visa interviews and such. If more people are part of the Visa Waiver Program, that means people canmber of focus more intently on countries where we think there is greater risk. There are security benefits from shifting towards higher risk targets. Right there. Thank you. I am on the board of advisors for the federation for immigration reform. I have two questions. If you wave people waive people from having to have visas, how do you keep track of whether they overstay the visas they dont need . The second question, if the United States is effecting benefactor net from foreign travel, more people coming here, we make 80 billion more, why would a country which is having more of its residents go to the united pleasurer business or then come from the United States to that country, have any incentive whatsoever to facilitate and increase that happening . Let me try that. That would be great. Waiver doesnt mean oyu you dont come without a visa and stay as long as you want. It is a 90day visa, and if you stay to day 91 you are overstaying. We know you have come here because we had your entry data, and unless you do Something Weird like drive in and fly out out, wen and drive will have records to show you departing. Its not impossible, though its a big data job, to match up manifestmation on the coming in and the information on the manifest coming out, which is the same passport information, to see whether people stayed longer than they should have. Our usual approach for most people, and this by and large has a good disciplinary effect, is to say if you overstay, you aint coming back on the Visa Waiver Program. You need to get a visa next time. I vividly remain for some poor woman from iceland who came to the United States, i picture her as a matron in a nice sweater, she arrived and we said, 20 years ago you overstay ed by two days. She said, i was in love. They said, we have to send you back because you dont have a you, and before we send back we have to keep you overnight because the next flight iceland is not until tomorrow, and because of standard procedures for dealing with people who are unlawful immigrants who have to be sent back, we will have to put you on, and because of our rules for how we do detention, we have to shackle you arm and leg to ride in the bus. She will never forget, all of iceland will never forget that experience. There are ways of deterring that, but you also have a number in thats when they come allow you to do security checks on people. There are mechanisms. Ifhave a particularly, theres reason to concern about an overstay their folks at i. C. E. To track down people who raise concerns from a terrorism point of view. On the question of incentives i will try to be shorter. This is not just a calculation haswhos more money, who greater te richer tourists. The real incentive is, and humor a french official you are a french official whose asit definitely that you have to go disneyland,go to you would lose the next election. The pena nieto in the united theme would be true in United States, to have screwed up the relationship with europe so nobody can take holidays without going through that. Both sides would feel a norm is political pain from doing this, instead of saying i am ahead of the game so i will cut off vwp. The experience bears that out. Whereis no incident someone is granted a visa waiver to come in the u. S. And there has not been that reciprocity. Notwithstanding the fact that in most cases the u. S. Would be the primary beneficiary. Another example right now is brazil, because of brazil many in the u. S. Travel industry would say brazil should be a candidate for the Visa Waiver Program. It actually requires a visa for u. S. Travel to brazil on the basis of reciprocity. It has nothing to do with security ro or overstaying, just that you require of us, we require it of you. They would gladly lift that requirement of American Travel, even though brazilian travel to the u. S. Net demand is much greater than American Travel to brazil. I would add on the question of overstay, that is one reason why at heritage we recommend we should move to a system that includes visa overstay. You will never stop every person from overstaying the visa, but if you have a rate that is low er, then you are effectively looking for countries where you know citizens have good ties, they tend to come back. You are reducing immigration risk. Ok. I have to cut up the questions so we can get to the ambassador. Please thank him for joining, and thank the panel. [applause] and as they exit the stage, i will apologize ahead of time, as a guy whose name dismissed announced gets mispronounced quite often, i apologize. Ambassador, ae long time representative of the nation of poland, the ministry of foreign affairs. He has been the ambassador of poland to spain most recently, and is now the ambassador of poland to the United States. Please join me in welcoming him to our stage. [applause] good afternoon. Have been talking about spain, so i can confirm tourism has great deal tha spain enjoyed since many years thanks attractopen policy to all the tourists. Let me start by thanking the Heritage Foundation for organizing this important event, and for inviting me to have the last word, which as you know, presents an opportunity to leave a lasting mark. I would like to thank the panelists. It,ally enjoyed particularly i agreed with the the opinions concerning cooperation between two countries as far as security is concerned. It is much more important than the interview system still being supplied in some cases. Is going bywhich surprisingly fast some am ints in say i poland say i am the most experienced in the polish foreign service, which is a polite way to say that retirement is right. Before, one can have dreams, and mine is a simple one, to get rid of the last obstacle in the u. S. Polish bilateral relations and get poland to the Visa Waiver Program. Polish citizens deserve to feel welcomed when visiting the h omeland of their friends and allies. A resolution to this issue should mean a lot to all of us. Having said that, i would like to draw your attention to a couple important facts. The first one, despite not hasg in the vwp, poland fulfilled all legal requirements demanded by the program. Allave signed and abide by bilateral security agreements needed to be a part of vwp. Thend, we are one of closest u. S. Allies in europe. Polish soldiers have fought alongside the american troops in iraq and afghanistan, and we are part of the antiisil coalition. Poles dont pose a terrorism threat to the United States. Our attitudes toward terrorism and what is happening in the world today are in line with that of our american friends. Our cooperation as far as security, as i mentioned, goes really far. Hassle and embarrassment associated with having to stand in line to obtain a visa has turned many polish businessmen and entr epreneurs looking for Business Opportunities elsewherem rather than the United States. When asked why, the reason is simple. The delays in the visa application. Finally, tourism, which was mentioned so frequently here. An area where the United States is missing out greatly. Million americans of polish background calling the u. S. Home, there are plenty of places where poles have a reason to look. Yet they prefer looking going to disneyland in paris rather than in orlando or los angeles. Why . Simply because of the stigma associated with standing in line to ask for permission to travel to the United States. I think you will agree with me when i say that we are both losing out in the current environment, but no one more so than the United States. Not only is it missing out on tourism revenue, but more importantly our realtions relations miss out on the critical people to people contact for strong relations. Last week, the secretary of commerce led an official delegation to poland to promote greater economic links between the countries. During the visit, she highlighted polands extraordinary political and Economic Transformation since to cold war, what president obama recently called an economic miracle. My countrys incredible progress happen has placed poland among the top 20 economies in the world, enabled poland to avoid the broader european thession, and made poland sixthlargest and fastestgrowing economy in the european union. This is part of the reason we have seen u. S. Poland commercial connections grow at such a rapid pace in recent years. Largest u. S. Dred companies, 56 operate in poland. More than 300 u. S. Companies are invested in poland, across all sectors from retail to services to manufacturing, with a total investment of over 30 billion over the last two decades. At the same time, polish Companies Invested 500 million u. S. Dollars in the United States only last year. I stand before you to make it clear that these numbers can and should be greater. Essentialpansion is in allowing for this to take place. , my the past two years staff and i have worked closely with our friends in the administration and on capitol hill to get poland into the Visa Waiver Program. Wayll that would pave the for poland and other allies to enter the program has passed in the Senate Earlier this year. 165house version has cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. But the house version has been stalled for months. Speak for many when i say we want the bill to see the light of day and be placed on the house floor for a vote. Thisl indications suggest, is broad bipartisan suppport that would lead to its passage in the house. Let me conclude by thanking and plotting the Heritage Foundation applauding the Heritage Foundation for the broad support of these a Waiver Program expansion over the years. For those already heavily invested in poland, as well as those just getting into the opportunities are marketplace invides, contactt members the house, especially the house leadership and members of the judiciary committee, to underlined the importance of polands inclusion in the program. The jobs act is a great starting point. As far as im concerned, why wait for the new congress to be sworn in next year and allow two years of hard work to be lost, when congress can get this done during the lameduck session . Depend ond on it it. Collective security depends on it. Transatlantic relations depend on it. I remain hopeful that the house acts and congrtess follows, and that this bill reaches the president s desk. Im counting on your support. Thank you. [applause] ambassador, as a member of our military who fought next to your men and women in iraq and afghanistan, i thank you, and i want to thank you for the continued friendship that was there before you became a formal ally until now. We at heritage stay firmly behind the getting your country into the Visa Waiver Program, and hopefully expanding it further. Thank you. I would like to thank all of you for being here today. Hopefully we have increased and understanding of the Visa Waiver Program, and i will put out an invitation to those of you in the press and those of you from over on the hill. If you are members your members have questions about visa waiver and why we support it staying in place and actually expanding during this time rather than trying to get it to recede, we would be happy to chat with you and give you those reasons and more depth than elaborated on here. We think it is very important for the security of the United States and for relations with our friends and allies that we do this. With that, i thank all of you that are here, those of you online, with us from cspan, and i wish you a wonderful afternoon. Thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] during his weekly address, president obama spoke about the economy and the latest jobs report. The republican response feature the candidate running for new york is 21st congressional district. Hi, everybody. For the first time in six years, the unclean rate is below 6 . Our businesses Unemployment Rate is below 6 . Our businesses have the longest uninterrupted job creation streak in history. But the typical family has not seen a raise since the 1990s. Folks are feeling as squeezed as ever. That is why i will keep creating pushing for policies that will create jobs faster and raise wages faster