Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act
Latest action · Feb 15, 2007 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
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.
- IntroducedFeb 15, 2007
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act - Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the United States should modernize the visa waiver program by enhancing program security requirements and extending visa-free travel privileges to nationals of foreign countries that are allies in the war on terrorism; and (2) such expansion will have positive security, economic, and bilateral effects.
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act with respect to the visa waiver program to authorize waiver of low visa refusal rate requirements for a country that meets security and counterterrorism cooperation requirements and has a sustained reduction in visa refusal rates.
Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to consider: (1) specified security-related issues in determining whether to waive low visa refusal requirements; and (2) visa overstay rates in determining program eligibility.
Provides for the following program security enhancements: (1) implementation of an electronic travel authorization system which shall provide biographical information; (2) participant country reporting of lost and stolen passports to the U.S. government; (3) participant country acceptance of its citizens or nationals removed from the United States; and (4) security-related information exchange about a country's citizens or nationals traveling to the United States.
Requires the Secretary to establish an exit system that records the departure on a flight leaving the United States of every alien program participant. Requires that such system: (1) match an alien's biometric information against watch lists and immigration information; and (2) compare such biometric information against air carrier manifests to confirm departures.
Cosponsors 4
Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Feb 15, 2007.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-MD | Barbara A. Mikulski | Original | Feb 15, 2007 |
| D-HI | Daniel K. Akaka | Original | Feb 15, 2007 |
| R-IN | Richard G. Lugar | Original | Feb 15, 2007 |
| R-AK | Ted Stevens | Original | Feb 15, 2007 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Feb 15, 2007Introduced in Senate
- Feb 15, 2007Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Related bills 2
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 1543 | Visa Waiver Modernization Act | Related bill | Apr 20, 2007 |
| HR 2006 | Secure Visa Waiver Travel Act | Related bill | May 4, 2007 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Immigration.
- Admission of nonimmigrants
- Airline passenger traffic
- Aliens
- Alliances
- Armed Forces and National Security
- Congress
- Congressional reporting requirements
- Crime and Law Enforcement
- Electronic data interchange
- Identification devices
- Immigration
- International Affairs
- International cooperation
- Passports
- Science, Technology, Communications
- Technical assistance
- Terrorism
- Transportation and Public Works
- Travel
- Visas
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Feb 15, 2007Introduced in Senate
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.