April 2008
Appearing yesterday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed the importance of exchange programs. “There is really no better commercial, if you will, for American democracy and the strength of America than having our people travel abroad and having people travel here,” Rice told Senators. “And we’ve tried, through public-private partnerships, more exchanges, more visitors, to give people access to the United States.”
The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday approved legislation that would extend for five years, to June 1, 2013, the waiver of the requirement that international medical graduate students return to their home country for at least two years before applying for work permits in the U.S. The legislation, H.R. 5571, was introduced by Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). It was approved in Committee by voice vote. Companion legislation has not been introduced in the Senate.
The House of Representatives today approved legislation to speed up the processing of visas for foreign artists invited to perform in the United States. The Arts Require Timely Service (ARTS) Act, H.R. 1312, would give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a 30-day window to process visa applications for performers and the people accompanying them. If the performer has been invited by a nonprofit group, and the Department misses the 30-day deadline, the visa application would qualify for 15-day “premium processing” at no charge.
At a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) called for a complete overhaul of American foreign assistance. “I strongly believe that America’s foreign assistance program is not in need of some minor changes,” Berman stated, “but rather, it needs to be reinvented and retooled in order to respond to the significant challenges our country and the world faces in the 21st century.”
Explaining that “the events of September 11, 2001 redefined our approach to visa work,” Janice L. Jacobs, President Bush’s nominee to lead the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “We have worked hard to increase visa security measures, completely changing the business model for processing visas and vastly improving our communication with other agencies.”
Appearing yesterday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed the importance of exchange programs. “There is really no better commercial, if you will, for American democracy and the strength of America than having our people travel abroad and having people travel here,” Rice told Senators. “And we’ve tried, through public-private partnerships, more exchanges, more visitors, to give people access to the United States.”
At a congressional hearing yesterday, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) explained that although he supports the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that resulted in the REAL ID Act and Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), “the devil is in the details” and the programs have become controversial because of those details.
