Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Improvement Act of 2008
Latest action · Sep 26, 2008 Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedSep 26, 2008
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Improvement Act of 2008 - Directs the Secretary of State to adjudicate U.S. passport applications in an individualized, evidence-based manner.
Requires the passport application adjudicatory process to be based on an assessment of individual circumstances and evidence.
Prohibits an applicant's race, ethnicity, or ancestry from being taken into account in the passport application adjudicatory process.
Requires: (1) an applicant to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the applicant is a U.S. citizen or national; (2) the preponderance of the evidence standard to be applied in a uniform and consistent manner to all passport applications; and (3) any determination that an applicant has not met the burden of proving U.S. citizenship or nationality by a preponderance of the evidence to be made in writing, state the reasons for the determination, and be provided to the applicant in a timely manner.
States that a birth certificate signed by a person authorized under state law to sign such a document, or a previously-issued U.S. passport, shall constitute prima facie evidence of U.S. citizenship or nationality and, absent individualized evidence that a birth did not take place in the United States, shall satisfy the preponderance of the evidence standard.
Cosponsors 4
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Sep 26, 2008 to Oct 2, 2008, with 2 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-TX | Ciro D. Rodriguez | Original | Sep 26, 2008 |
| D-TX | Ruben Hinojosa | Original | Sep 26, 2008 |
| D-TX | Charles A. Gonzalez | Sep 27, 2008 | |
| D-AZ | Raúl M. Grijalva | Oct 2, 2008 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Sep 26, 2008Introduced in House
- Sep 26, 2008Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Immigration.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Sep 26, 2008Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.
