“The Department of State’s Border Security Program—Investing in America’s Security”

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, Members of the Committee:

Thank you for inviting me to testify before you today on the Department of State’s Border Security Program. I am pleased to explain both the strategy employed by the Department of State in its Border Security Program and then how that strategy is implemented in the day-to-day operations of the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

The Border Security Program at the Department of State is a complex mission involving the activities of a number of bureaus and offices. Funded largely through the Department’s limited fee retention authorities for consular services, the Border Security Program exists to strengthen the security of the United States by “pushing outward” our borders. The Department has followed a consistent and multi year strategy that focuses on:

The Department’s Border Security Program is much larger than just the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA). CA’s main partners in implementing this program include the Bureaus of Diplomatic Security, Information Management, Human Resources, Intelligence and Research, and Resource Management as well as the geographic bureaus. The Administration is seeking some $836 million in the FY-05 budget to help fund these activities.

In terms of Consular Affairs, our mission is to help Americans abroad, facilitate legitimate international travel, and prevent the travel to the United States of foreigners who are likely to engage in activities harmful to our country. We have no higher responsibility than the protection of our citizens and safeguarding our country’s borders through the Border Security Program, and we are determined to carry out this responsibility in the best and most effective manner possible.

In FY 2005, the priorities of CA are:

Visa Services

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 highlighted as never before the crucial role the Bureau of Consular Affairs plays in U.S. border security through the visa process. The Consular Officers of the Foreign Service at the 212 visa adjudicating embassies and consulates abroad are truly our first line of defense. In FY-05, we will continue our efforts to ensure that the visa process is as secure as possible and that it supports our overall homeland security efforts so that – with the immigration check at the port of entry and the enhanced capabilities of the Department of Homeland Security – it will form a coordinated and interlocking network of border security in which the American people can have confidence.

One of the most important tools we can provide our consular officers abroad is information that will help them identify and deny a visa to a terrorist, criminal or other ineligible alien. Our goal is to push the borders of the United States out as far from our shores as possible to stop a problematic or questionable traveler overseas. To this end, our coordinated efforts with law enforcement and intelligence agencies have more than doubled the names of known or suspected terrorists and other ineligible aliens in our databases. We will continue to seek opportunities for data sharing with federal agencies that have a role in the visa process or interact with visa recipients. In fact, the majority of the data in our consular lookout system now derives from other agencies, especially those in the law enforcement and intelligence communities.

I am particularly proud that an activity funded through the Department’s Border Security Program – the TIPOFF program – is a key building block for the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC), which will maintain the principal database on known and suspected terrorists in a highly classified form. The TIPOFF database with its approximately 120,000 records was transferred to TTIC on November 17, 2003. TTIC, together with the separate Terrorist Screening Center, will eliminate the stovepiping of terrorist data and provide a more systematic approach to posting lookouts on potential and known terrorists.

We are also currently engaged with DHS in implementing a biometrics program to track the entry and exit of foreign visitors by using electronically scanned fingerprints and photographs. This new system, which begins with consular officers collecting electronically scanned fingerprints at consular sections abroad and continues with DHS’s US-VISIT program at ports of entry and departure, will create a coordinated and interlocking network of border security. We began our new Biometric Visa Program in September 2003, and it is now operational at more than 70 visa-adjudicating posts. With our aggressive rollout schedule, the program will be in effect at all visa-adjudicating posts by the congressionally mandated deadline of October 26, 2004. The inclusion of additional biometrics, in addition to the photograph that has always been collected, in international travel documents is an important step in continuing to improve our ability to verify the identity of prospective travelers to the United States. In the process of screening visas and passports domestically and abroad, additional biometrics can serve as a useful adjunct to existing screening processes that identify individuals who might be terrorists, criminals, or other aliens who might represent a security risk to the United States.

Other visa-related initiatives that will be funded through the on-going Border Security Program include:

American Citizens:

The Bureau of Consular Affairs works to promote the safety and security of the 3.2 million Americans who reside abroad and those U.S. residents who make about 60 million trips outside the U.S. each year. This complements our overall homeland security efforts on the visa side of the house, extending to all Americans our strongest and best efforts to ensure their safety wherever they might be. We provide current information on travel conditions and security through our Consular Affairs home page at http://travel.state.gov, which received nearly 198.5 million inquiries in FY 2003, and the Overseas Citizens Services (OCS) Call Center, which received approximately 70,000 calls.

International tensions and security concerns, especially incidents of international parental child abduction, have prompted more parents to take preventive action to monitor or limit their children’s travel abroad. This has resulted in a growing number of requests for passport lookouts, and increased inquiries concerning preventive measures to avoid international parental child abductions, in particular. The Office of Children’s Issues (CA/OCS/CI) has also worked with the OCS Call Center to respond to routine inquiries concerning preventive measures, while maintaining responsibility for passport lookouts. We hosted a meeting with left-behind parents in 2003 and plan similar meetings through FY 2005.

Our priorities for American citizens in FY 2005 include implementation of the Hague Inter-country Adoption Convention, which will require CA, as the Central Authority for the Convention, to take on responsibilities never before performed on the federal level; enhanced services for victims of crime abroad and tracking of statistics on such crimes; enhanced emergency “fly-away” teams; efficient administration of overseas civilian participation in the 2004 general election; expanded use of CA’s web site and the Overseas Citizens Services Call Center to provide the most current information on travel conditions and security; continuation of the re-engineering of the American Citizens Services software; and outreach around the United States to educate the public and stakeholder groups about our programs and the assistance that consular officers abroad can provide. Topics to be addressed will include: travel safety overseas, especially for students; crisis preparedness; international parental child abduction, including prevention measures; intercountry adoption; the passport application process; and consular notification and access in arrest cases. These initiatives are overwhelmingly funded as part of the Border Security program.

Passport Services:

Just as we are committed to the most secure adjudication process and documentation to support the visa process, the same is true in terms of what we consider to be the world’s most valuable document--the U.S. passport. In FY-03, Passport Services issued over seven million passports. We recently completed the system-wide introduction of photodigitization technology to support passport printing. That effort has been so successful that we have, in turn, moved the production of passports issued abroad to our U.S. domestic production facilities so that we can take advantage of the significant security improvements embodied in the photodigitization process. But, we also have many other initiatives underway. We will proceed with our efforts to enhance biometrics in U.S. passports and bring our passport into compliance with international standards established in May 2003. The inclusion of a “smart” chip in the passport, on which we will write the bearer’s biographic information and photograph, will increase the security of the document. This initiative is consistent with U.S. legislation that requires our Visa Waiver Program participants to take such a step, but it is not required. We are nonetheless pursuing the initiative because it supports U.S. national security. This new passport will further strengthen our ability to reliably link the authorized bearer of a passport to its user.

We are completely redesigning the U.S. passport and its security features. And, since the passport process is only as strong as the underlying adjudication process, we are strengthening our datasharing efforts with agencies in order to help confirm the identity of applicants. We will enhance our computer systems and provide for expected upgrades to accommodate the production of passports. To protect the over 60 million passport records stored on-line and provide redundant systems to support other agencies that require access to these vital records, new storage and server systems will be procured in FY 2004 and FY 2005. Again, these activities are funded as part of the Border Security Program.

Management and Organizational Excellence:

We continue to strengthen homeland security by ensuring that the consular function has appropriate facilities and is staffed at sufficient levels by consular officers who are trained to screen out terrorists. As part of the Border Security Program, the Department is establishing 93 new consular positions -- 13 domestic and 80 overseas in FY-04 and is requesting 60 additional positions in FY-05-- 15 domestic and 45 overseas. In addition, the Department plans to establish 68 new positions overseas in FY-04 and is requesting 63 in FY-05 as part of the Consular Associate replacement program. These additional positions will give us the ground troops necessary to staff our first line of defense.

We place a high priority on maintaining efficient and state-of-the-art systems and leveraging technology to the extent feasible because of the global nature of consular operations and the necessity for interagency data-sharing. We will continue to replace IT equipment for consular sections abroad as well as Consular Affairs domestic operations on a 3 to 4 year cycle, provide updated remote and computer-based training on consular systems to supplement hands-on training by visiting experts at least once every 12 to 18 months, and maintain Support Desks to provide key links between employees and the development and support elements in the Consular Systems Division.

Good management requires effective internal controls. We continue to strengthen management controls via the issuance of standard operating procedures (SOPs), conducting Management Assessment and Internal Control Reviews at passport agencies, certifications that management controls are in place at consular offices, and sending Consular Management Assistance Teams (CMATs) to work collaboratively with posts toward our common goal of protecting homeland security and our borders. In FY 2005, the CMATs will maintain a robust schedule of visits to assess the integrity of management controls, effective resource utilization and space allocation, and the extent to which Department?mandated SOPs have been understood and implemented. CMATs serve as a resource in identifying and helping to resolve post needs, as well as providing guidance and counseling as appropriate. CA uses its new Vulnerability Assessment Unit, a joint initiative with the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, to analyze consular data, systems, and processes to detect anomalies in visa and passport processing, thus reducing CA's vulnerability to system manipulation.

The Department’s Border Security Program is a critical element in the Department of State’s goal to protect American citizens and safeguard the nation’s borders. By focusing on sharing information, providing sufficient infrastructure and human resources, increasing connectivity, and enhancing the integrity of our processes and documents, the Department of State is ensuring that we have a Border Security Program in which the American people can place their trust and confidence.

Thank you and I welcome your questions.