Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

I am pleased to be here today to discuss the critical role that the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs plays in securing our nation’s borders. Protecting the security of the United States from foreign threats has always been, and continues to be, the primary goal of the visa process. The Secretary has also articulated our policy of “Secure Borders/Open Doors” many times before the Congress and public. We are acutely conscious of the need for legitimate travelers – who constitute the overwhelming majority of our applicant pool – to receive swift, thorough, and clear adjudications of their visa applications so that they can plan their travel to the US consonant with the goals of that travel. It is an undeniable fact that, in some parts of the world, it now takes longer to receive a visa to travel to the US than it did in the past. This is a direct consequence of the greater scrutiny to which certain visa applicants have been subjected in the wake of 9/11. At the same time, we continue to reform the visa process to make it more efficient and effective but always within the context of security. I am proud to report to you today on some of the many improvements to the visa process since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. (I would also like to enter into the record this list of improvements.)

Secretary Powell has described our consular officers abroad as America’s first line of defense against terrorists and criminals who seek to enter the US to do harm to our citizens and foreign guests. Obviously the best way to stop terrorists or criminals from receiving a legitimate US visa is to identify those persons beforehand reliably to our consular officers so they can spot them on visa lines and take appropriate action against them. Thanks to the USA PATRIOT ACT, which mandated interagency data-sharing, our Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS) now contains more than 15 million records on people ineligible to receive visas, more than double the number available before 9/11. CLASS counts on the systematic contributions of many federal government agencies --but especially those of the law enforcement and intelligence communities-- to provide up-to-date information on terrorist threats to the United States. In fact, the majority of information (61%) now in CLASS is derived from other agencies.

Data information is essential but you obviously need to know how to use it in order to reliably distinguish the genuine threats from the overwhelming majority of visa applicants who simply wish to visit our country for legitimate reasons. Consular officers employ the language skills and country knowledge acquired prior to arrival at post, along with new techniques now taught at the Foreign Service Institute that allow them to better recognize deception. Officer training and state-of-the-art consular systems come together in the visa interview where an officer can assess an applicant’s bona fides, perform the mandatory namecheck and decide whether or not to issue a visa. While personal interviews may be costly in time and money, they are an essential part of the process to enable us to better assess the visa applicant. This is why we recently revised our regulations to limit the circumstances under which a post may waive the requirement to personally interview all visa applicants.

Requiring more personal interviews also allows our embassies and consulates to prepare for the next major reform, the introduction of biometric identifiers in the U.S. visa as required by Section 303 of the Enhanced Border and Security Act. By October 26, 2004, all U.S. visas must incorporate a biometric identifier. In accordance with international standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization, we have selected facial recognition and electronic fingerprint scanning as the most effective and least intrusive. We are currently collecting fingerprints at six posts (San Salvador, Guatemala City, Frankfurt, Brussels, Ottawa and Montreal) in an efficient and respectful manner and will continue to expand our capability to all visa-issuing posts to meet the congressionally mandated deadline of October 26, 2004.

Since terrorist groups are agile organizations that are constantly recruiting members, we have designed a system of Security Advisory Opinion (SAO) requirements that require a consular officer abroad to refer selected visas cases, identified by law enforcement and intelligence information, for greater review by Washington based agencies. Of the various SAO procedures, “Visas Condor” was created to focus on potential terrorism applicants. Review of Condor cases requires close cooperation with our partners in law enforcement and the intelligence community to ensure that all the best analysis is brought to bear on such cases before deciding whether to issue the applicants a visa. In no case do we issue a visa over the objections of law enforcement or the intelligence community. In the last fiscal year, we processed approximately 212,000 SAO cases, which represent only 2.2 per cent of total visa workload.

We also have an SAO procedure to ensure that sensitive US technology is not stolen or inappropriately shared with those who would use it to harm the US or our allies. Known as the “Visas Mantis,” this procedure also requires close cooperation with other agencies that are experts in law enforcement, counter-terrorism, and high technology. Once the analysis is complete, we review the derogatory information provided in light of the provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act and other relevant law. We then advise the consular officer as to whether there is any derogatory information on the applicant.

We have nonetheless come a long way from the beginning of the “Condor” process and the very difficult period from the summer of 2002 when we first required a positive response from law enforcement prior to issuing any visa subject to this review. None of the federal agencies involved in the clearance process, including State, were technically equipped to handle the volume of data that began to come in to us when “Condor” began. To improve the overall process, we have made a number of technical changes in coordination with other agencies. In July of this year, we improved the efficiency of the clearance process by shifting clearance of “Condor” cases to our National Visa Center in New Hampshire. We also created a special Mantis team in the Visa Office devoted exclusively to technology transfer cases. We are also piloting a one million dollar project to allow for seamless electronic transmission of visa data among Foreign Service posts, the Department of State and other Washington agencies. The other agencies will no longer receive a telegram but a reliable data transmission through an interoperable network that begins with the Consular Consolidated Database. Using the Consular Consolidated Database as an electronic linchpin will improve data integrity, accountability of responses in specific cases, and statistical reporting. We will pilot this project in November.

The integrity of our own travel documents, both physical and procedural, is another linchpin in the security of our country’s borders. Although the Enhanced Border Security Act does not address the issue of biometrics in the U.S. passport, we believe it is desirable for the U.S. to commit to a comprehensive program to incorporate this new technology into the U.S. passport in light of the clear security and identity advantages that this new technology offers. We are currently developing an “intelligent passport” with an embedded chip that will use a facial recognition standard consistent with the ICAO standard that is accepted internationally. The data initially written to the chip will be limited to the same bio-data shown on the data page in the current version of the passport, along with a full digital image of the passport bearer’s portrait. We have assembled an interagency working group to develop a project plan for implementing our program. Our objective is to begin piloting the passport in October 2004 with system-wide implementation by early 2006.

As I noted above, we will meet the congressionally mandated deadline of section 303(b) of the Enhanced Border and Security Act to add biometrics to visas we issue to foreign nationals. Let me further add that to support this program we will be expanding our datashare arrangements with DHS. We will be providing DHS the electronic record of all issued visas in real-time to include the visa recipient’s photo and fingerprints. The fingerprint data will be checked against the DHS lookout database known as IDENT. We expect that DHS will use our visa data to speed up the identification verification and inspection of travelers arriving at US ports of entry.

Finally, I would like to say a few words about our new partnership with the Department of Homeland Security. In this historic time of change, State and DHS have come together to establish procedures that will provide a sound basis for maintaining an effective, efficient visa process that secures America’s borders from external threats while continuing to promote legitimate travel to the U.S. We worked long and hard together on a framework that gives the Secretary of Homeland Security the policy role contemplated by the Homeland Security Act while maintaining the Secretary of State’s clear chain of command over consular officers and relying on the foreign policy and visa processing expertise of the Department of State and its consular officers.

I hope I have conveyed our deep commitment to enhancing the security of the visa process. I hope I have also conveyed our commitment to maintaining the openness of our society to foreign visitors from all aspects of life: students, family members, scholars, business travelers and tourists all enrich our country and bring significant economic benefits to the United States. “Secure Borders/Open Doors” remains our goal. Our challenge has been to integrate the security enhancing features of our new programs in both the visa and passport worlds in a manner that does not discourage legitimate travel to the US. I welcome your questions.