Changes to Visa Waiver Program Travel, including Request for Extension of Biometric Deadline

2:00 PM. EST

Real Audio of Briefing

MR. BOOKBINDER: Good afternoon and welcome to the Foreign Press Center. This afternoon, we're delighted to have Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson and Daniel Smith, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, and they're going to be talking this afternoon about changes that impact visa waiver countries.

Before we get going, let me remind everyone to make sure you've got your cell phones turned off. What we will do is, they'll each make statements, and then we'll go to questions. When we go to the question session, please wait for the microphone to come to you, and then identify yourself and your news organization. Okay?

I would first like to invite Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Smith to make some comments. Thank you.

MR. SMITH: Thank you very much. We have really two announcements to make today, and I will make the first, and then let Under Secretary Hutchinson talk about the second one.

The first is, as many of you are already aware, the Administration has requested from Congress an extension by two years of the October 26th, 2004, deadline for Visa Waiver Program countries to introduce biometric passports.

There are really two aspects to this requirement: The first is that they have a program in place to produce biometric passports, most of which will be in compliance with that first part. The second is that, as you know -- and this gets a little complicated, I apologize -- but the second is that by October 26th, 2004, every traveler who comes to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program who has a passport issued after that date must have either a biometric passport or a visa.

That is the deadline that we're seeking to extend for two years. Secretary Powell and Secretary Ridge have both written to Congress and will be testifying in front of Congress later this month on this subject. This is a very important issue for us. We think that the Visa Waiver Program countries are making a concerted effort to introduce biometric passports, but it is a difficult challenge, the challenge that we, by the way, face, ourselves, in introducing a biometric passport.

It requires a number of technical and scientific issues to be addressed before we will succeed in this effort, and we want to get it right, and we hope that Congress will give us sufficient time for this. Our concern is, otherwise, with the requirement for a visa for those who have a passport issued after that date that it could create significant problems, not only for the State Department, but also for the United States, if we were to require all of these travelers to receive visas.

With that, if I may, I'll be glad to answer questions, but I'd like to introduce Under Secretary Hutchinson.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Thank you, Dan. And the Department of Homeland Security, through Secretary Ridge, has joined in the request to Congress to extend the biometric passport requirement deadline for two years. In that context, the Administration is announcing today that all Visa Waiver Program travelers will be subject to US-VISIT requirements upon entering and exiting the United States.

This means that all travelers for Visa Waiver countries will be checked by passport presentation, as they are currently, but also by biometric or finger scan check, and this will begin by September 30, of this year, at airports and seaports; and then by December 30th of this year, we will add this requirement to the 50 busiest land ports; and then, as directed by Congress, we will have a comprehensive system by the end of '05.

This will allow us to have a comprehensive check, as I mentioned, of all overseas visitors to the United States through our US-VISIT Program. What we want to communicate to our international guests is that we recognize that the Visa Waiver country travelers are among our best allies, our best friends, our best international guests to the United States. We value their travel. We value the partnership that we have with them.

And even though we are required and it's necessary that we have enhanced security measures, we're doing all that we can to make sure they're minimally inconvenient, and that they really do add safety and security to the visitors to the United States. As we have implemented this program since January 5, we have heard comments from international visitors that, “wow, this is a great system. It's a great security measure. I hope that we have that in our country,” and they are not troubled by it whatsoever.

And as experience grows with US-VISIT, I think the people will see that it's consistent with the welcoming nature of America, and that it is enhancing security, and that ultimately it will help us to facilitate travel, as we can identify frequent visitors, confirm identity, fewer secondary inspections, and the ability to travel very freely and easily to the United States.

And so we're grateful for the understanding of our international partners in this regard. I think the visa countries that have experience with this have recognized that it has not been an undue burden on the travel, but it has enhanced the safety of the international visitors of the United States.

With that, I'll be happy to take questions, and certainly, Daniel will take questions as well.

QUESTION: Thank you. I'm Maria Pena from EFE News Services.

Two questions: Number one, how do you respond to skeptics that are saying, well, with the Visa Waiver countries, aren't you afraid that a terrorist might obtain a fake document, a fake passport from a European country listed in the waiver program, and then try to come over here and cause damage? That's one. You know, they're saying that this is creating a loophole for terrorists.

And the second question: By having these countries be subjected to the US-VISIT Program, are you not afraid that they'll react the same way Brazil did, in doing the same to U.S. visitors?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: First, you asked about a loophole. Obviously, this step that we're announcing today is designed to close the loophole, and to make sure that the security gaps are addressed. And we believe that this adds enormous security value whenever we cannot just rely upon a document, but we rely upon a biometric to check with our database. And this will give us a security measure for identifying terrorists or those that are in our criminal databases as well.

And you also asked about the concern that a terrorist might acquire a passport from a Visa Waiver country. That's one of the characteristics of a Visa Waiver country is that they have added security measures in place, better passport controls. And so that is addressed. But, obviously, our review and the requirements for Visa Waiver countries are very important from a security standpoint.

And, Dan, you might want to --

MR. SMITH: Well, if I may, on your second question, I would note one thing in particular; that is, Visa Waiver Program nationals who travel to the United States with a visa now, and many do require a visa, are already subject to US-VISIT. And thus far, we've had very few problems or issues that have arisen in this context.

QUESTION: Some of them are, you know, when they come here, you're referring to those that come on a non-immigrant visa, like a journalist visa, for example.

MR. SMITH: Exactly.

QUESTION: But now you're saying that this will expand to those in the Visa Waiver Program that don't require tourism or business visas.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: That's exactly right. But I wanted to point out that it's nothing with respect to many of the Visa Waiver Program nationals. It's only those who are going -- coming here under the program who will now be subject to it who were not previously.

And the important thing is that these countries continue to have the benefit of visa-free travel and to continue that capability. Obviously, the biometric feature of the biometrics is important down the road; and then secondly, the US-VISIT check is an important part of that Visa Waiver country travel as well.

Next, please.

QUESTION: How about the reaction to (inaudible)?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: I think we answered that.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Let's go to Russia over here.

QUESTION: Pavel Vanichkin, TASS News Agency of Russia.

Mr. Hutchinson, let me ask you a question about the U.S. visa program in general. Last year when you announced it in this certain place, you said that foreigners, Russians, including Russians, would be asked to leave their fingerprints two times, first when we arrive, second when we leave the country.

Since then, a couple of my friends left international -- Dulles International Airport for Moscow. Nobody asked them to leave their fingerprints there. Does that mean that --

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: What airport did they leave?

MR. SMITH: Dulles.

QUESTION: Yeah. Dulles, yeah. Does that mean that you, for some reasons, decided to delete this element from your program?

Thank you.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: And, you know, if I answered it in January that they would have to leave their fingerprints twice, first it should be whenever they obtain the visa in the consular office in Moscow or wherever they would leave their fingerprint, and then they would give it again when they enter our port of entry to confirm their identity. And so that's twice.

Now, ultimately, we hope that we will have a system where it's biometrically confirmed when they leave. And you're absolutely correct that it is not in place in Dulles. We do have an exit capability through passenger information from the airlines that gives us the biographic information when they leave, and so thus far US-VISIT, since January 5, we've processed over 2.5 million international passengers, and they've checked in and they've checked out, and through the checking out process we've identified over 1,000 per week, over 12,000 potential visa overstays. And so our system is working in that regard.

Now, we do hope to have a biometric check when they leave. We're testing that at Baltimore International Airport. We'll be expanding that pilot project to different airports this year. By the end of this year, we hope to have a final solution, we call it, or a final determination as to the right exit procedure that will include biometrics.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay, let's go to the fourth row.

QUESTION: Ed Alden from the Financial Times.

I wanted to ask about the issue of backlogs. How confident are you that when we hit the summer peak season -- I mean, you've processed 2.5 million visitors so far. We've got 13 million, roughly, coming each year on Visa Waiver Program. How confident are you that you can handle peak season travel without causing genuine and serious disruption?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Very confident. And it's a confidence based upon experience and the technical expertise that we have in evaluating the system.

But we've been somewhat cautious. You'll recall when I was here on January 5 and we rolled this out that we only implemented it in the first phase, we wanted to make sure the system worked well, that we had the capacity for it. And now we're adding another phase to it.

And you're right, the Visa Waiver country travelers are 13 million. The visa travelers are 19 million. So this is a substantial addition to the system. But we have our inspectors who are trained now. The system has worked and so we're confident that this can be implemented without any delays in travel or any increase in the lines.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay, why don't we go to the back. The gentleman in the back, just in front of the camera.

QUESTION: Derek Stoffel, Canadian Broadcasting.

How are Canadian citizens affected by this?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: They are not. Under current law, Canadian citizens do not travel with a passport or visa, and therefore they are excepted from US-VISIT requirements.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay, let's come over here to the third row.

QUESTION: Khaled Dawoud with -- from Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper.

I was just reading now that warning by the FBI that some suspected terrorists might use cultural events or, you know, other musical events or something to come to the United States and commit terrorist acts. So, and I was wondering, with, like, all these restrictions, you know, that you are now imposing, how will this affect the U.S. cultural exchange and, you know, educational exchange? Already in education the number of students coming to the United States reduced by 20 percent. So how would you worry that this will affect visitors of the U.S.?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Well, we don't want it to. We're taking every step that we can to make sure that it does not impact our cultural visits, our business travelers, our educational travelers to the United States. In fact, when it came to our international students, we had a 24-hour response team that was set up to help process the over 200,000 students that we knew were coming in this last fall. So we've taken steps to not only add security but also to make sure the systems work well.

When it comes to a particular category of visa travelers, you know, we get international from time to time that they're looking at ways to exploit the system. And, obviously, we try to alert our inspectors to that, not to block it but simply to be on the alert. And, obviously, that's one of the reasons that we have to pay attention to making sure the traveler has the right type of visa and very politely asking the right questions. But we certainly want to continue to welcome those cultural exchanges and, at the same time, have very alert inspectors and have the proper systems in place.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay, we'll go to the fourth row, this gentleman.

QUESTION: Mr. Hutchinson, Al Ortiz from Azteca Television of Mexico.

Two questions: What are the factors that you have considered to express that delay of two years? What has been studied and what are the conclusions that makes you think it's only going to take two years for countries to implement all of those technologies that should be implemented?

And also, in case there is any trouble with the fingerprint, someone is not identified as expected, what's the procedure with that person?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: If they're not identified --

QUESTION: If, for some reason, the fingerprint and the passport don't match.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Oh. Let me tackle that, and you might tackle some of that as well.

MR. SMITH: Certainly.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: But, you know, if they give their fingerprint and that does not match with the fact that they've been through before, the same fingerprint that we have in the system, obviously that either indicates that's a fraudulent use of that or a case of a stolen identity. They'd be referred to secondary inspection, where all of -- you know, that's just a finger scan.

There will be full fingerprints to make sure that we're not making an error in the system. We'll check with our law enforcement sources, run it down, and make a decision on that. And that's the type of thing that we've run into already in our US-VISIT system. Whenever we have a hit at our primary inspection booth, they're referred to secondary inspection.

The error rate is very, very small, you know, less than a tenth of a percent, I believe it is. But, you know, we certainly check it out, have a full identification, process it and refer to law enforcement if necessary.

And then on the question about the two-year, do you want to?

MR. SMITH: Certainly, thank you, sir. We think it's an adequate period of time for the Visa Waiver Program countries and for ourselves to address the issues that are involved. But I don't want to minimize those issues. There are some serious technical and scientific issues that have to be address.

I'd also note that the ICAO, which is the International Civil Aviation Organization, adopted its standard only in May of 2003. So there hasn't been a lot of time since then for countries to begin addressing the host of problems and issues that arise in introducing a biometric passport.

But we're fairly confident, given our discussions with them and what's happened since then, that within the next period of two years beyond the October deadline, that most countries will be able to meet this.

QUESTION: Can you give us any examples of what those issues or --

MR. SMITH: Well, one of the things, obviously, the first thing we want to get right is to make it interoperable; that is, if we introduce this, and we will, introduce this biometric passport, we wanted something that can be read at any port of entry so that the same biometric is used in the U.S. passport is used in the Australian passport is used in the British passport and can be read at any one of our ports of entry. And that's something that we obviously want to get right before we introduce.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: That impacts us, as well, and we hope -- the ICAO standards right now are facial identification. We hope that the international community will move to use this type system as well, so that we can have more appropriate checks of terrorist watch lists, databases such as this and exchange of information.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Yes. We're going to go to the fifth row, lady with glasses.

QUESTION: Thank you. Mr. -- oh, Beth Gorham from the Canadian Press.

Mr. Under Secretary, if Mexico and Canada have been lucky enough to get out of this, how do you explain that to your other close allies?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Well, and of course, there is some distinction. Mexican citizens come in with visas. We have exempted the border crossing cards when they're used as a 72-hour border crossing card, rather than a permanent visa. And the answer there is that they already have a background check, a security check, a watch list check against their biometric when they obtain that card, and so security measures are in place there.

In reference to Canadian citizens, there is some difference in terms of the concern of international passengers flying international aircraft coming into the United States versus most of the Canadian citizens not traveling in that fashion, although certainly, some do fly in the United States, but it's not quite the same on the land borders.

But it is a distinction. And obviously, we've had a traditional relationship, a very open border with Canada, that's had some adjustments since September 11th. We've enhanced our border cooperation with Canada. We're going to continue to do that. And I think that -- you know, but our current relationship is there has not been a passport requirement for U.S. citizens and Canadian citizens, and I'm sure we'll have continued discussions.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay. Let's move up to the front row.

QUESTION: This is Jesus Esquivel from Proceso Mexican magazine.

It's a question regarding the negotiations that you are having this week with Mexican authorities on the repatriation to the interior of Mexico. (Inaudible), as you well know, he told that there is kind of difficulty about the voluntary repatriation of Mexicans. Can you tell us what is the status of that negotiation please?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: The negotiations are going very well. We had a technical team that went to Mexico City last week and had a very positive, construction discussion. They're going to continue that in the upcoming weeks and we hope we can move to finalizing an agreement.

And we understand the concerns of the Government of Mexico on voluntary repatriation, and we can have -- we're willing to accept that with some parameters. I mean, there are some people who for humanitarian reasons, for example, you would not want to put back out in the dessert. And so, you know, they ought to have transportation back and close to their home.

We will continue to have discussions with them. I think that we will be able to reach an agreement, and we certain respect their concerns for voluntary repatriation and the voluntary acceptance of this, of transportation back close to their home.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay. Let's go to the lady in the fifth row please.

QUESTION: Thank you. Bulgarian Television, Nadezhda Stefanova.

Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs very recently told Bulgarian press that Bulgarian Government has an intention to request the U.S. visas for Bulgarians to be removed. Has official request been done by Bulgarian Government at your knowledge?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Is that to remove the visa requirement or is that to -- is that what you're referring to?

QUESTION: The U.S. visas to be removed for Bulgarian citizens, which we understand, like joining with their program countries.

QUESTION: Please could you also comment on the similar request made by Brazil please.

QUESTION: Is there a request by Bulgarian Government officially?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: There is -- I cannot speak for our whole government, as to whether we've received that or not. I would certainly expect that we have received that and will certainly give it a timely response. But to enter the Visa Waiver Program, there are certain technical requirements, in terms of security of passport issuance, reporting requirements, visa denial rates. And so it will be evaluated in light of that, and certainly given very fair consideration.

In terms of the future, I think that as we internationally move to biometric confirmation and have greater capability in documents, we'll continue to evaluate the standards for these and certainly try to make sure that the travel is facilitated and there is not undue burdens on countries. In reference to Brazil, I think the request was an exemption from US-VISIT itself.

QUESTION: And there was a meeting between President Lula and President Bush in Monterrey, and Brazil tried to engage in negotiations for the Visa Waiver, as a whole.

And I'm Paulo Cabral from BBC Brazil.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Thank you.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: And certainly, it will have the same evaluation, as I indicated, for Bulgaria or another country that applies. There are certain technical requirements and we will review those on an annual basis, and it will receive that consideration.

QUESTION: An official request has been done or not -- or hasn't?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Are you aware of that?

MR. SMITH: I don't know. I assume that it probably has been done. I just don't know that. I'm sorry.

MR. BOOKBINDER: We'll go to the sixth row, the gentleman on the end.

QUESTION: With DeutscheWelle, Germany's external broadcaster.

Mr. Secretary, are you confident that you can manage the increase of security checks with existing personnel, or are you going to step up the number of immigration officers by September 30th?

And also, how many countries take part in the Visa Waiver Program currently?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: There are 27 countries that qualify for the Visa Waiver Program.

In reference to the personnel required, this is a data systems check, and so, you know, it's different than whenever we're checking someone's background for a visa application where we've got to run it through different agencies, and we're trying to streamline that. That has had some delays.

This is simply a check biometrically against our system, and so it's an automatic. Right now, it takes about 8 seconds.

QUESTION: (Off mike.) And the photographs --

MR. SMITH: (Off mike.) They're being taken, too.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: It takes, on the average, about 15 seconds for the system, added time, for enrollment in US-VISIT. And that's an important point there. Added time for enrollment in US-VISIT, is about 15 seconds.

When I say eight seconds, that's the time where you punch the button and it hits against our database and a report comes back, which is very, very instantaneous.

Now, what happens when you're enrolling someone in US-VISIT, you're checking their passport, you're asking the questions which you always do. And so the whole process varies, but the added time for US-VISIT enrollment is about 15 seconds.

So I don't expect that we will need to have additional inspectors. We should be able to do it with the existing systems because the system's in place. But we'll continue to monitor that to make sure that this does not cause any undue delays.

MR. BOOKBINDER: We'll go to the second row.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Jose Carreno with El Universal, Mexico.

Two questions: Number one, to what degree this announcement or this decision was prompted by the attacks on Madrid, number one?

And number two, you have, apparently, a number of economic problems for the US-VISIT Program, so how are you planning to finance this specific program?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: This decision was not impacted by what happened in Madrid. This decision was working through our interagency review, really long before the Madrid attack happened.

In reference to the spending and the funding for US-VISIT, we've had very constant funding for US-VISIT. The first year, I think it was 360 million. The second year, 330 million. I believe it's a very similar amount for '05 that the President has requested.

There was one instance in which the President did ask in '04 for $400 million and Congress gave 330 million. But I think the answer for that is that they wanted to see the system work first. So now that it is working, that it is being implemented, I think it is being well received and will be appropriately funded.

QUESTION: All the people that ask for -- request a visa, an American visa, is charged with hundred dollars for visa. So will the people that have this Visa Waiver Program be paying the same amount, or the cost will go to those people who already have to pay the visa?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Well, the visa fee application goes for one purpose, and Dan can answer that. There is not any fee that funds US-VISIT. US-VISIT is simply an appropriated amount that our taxpayers are funding, and so it's not based upon any fee that a foreign citizen would pay for the inspection of US-VISIT on our ports of entry.

MR. SMITH: That's correct. US-VISIT or Visa Waiver Program travel to the United States does not involve any fee. It's only if a Visa Waiver Program national were to apply for a visa that they would be subject to the same application fee that we charge every visa applicant around the world.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay, let's go to Austria in the sixth row.

QUESTION: Edith Griswold, Austria Press Agency.

If one country of the Visa Waiver countries now -- government now decides also to fingerprint Americans who come to their country and to take pictures starting in next autumn, will the United States consider this as an act welcome to improve security or will you consider this as an act unfriendly to the United States?

Thank you.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: I think it would depend upon the intent of it. (Laughter.)

We recognize that there will be an international development of biometric verification of travel documents and passengers, and we encourage that, we welcome that, and we fully expect other countries to have similar security measures in place. And we understand this is not simply a one-way street.

Obviously, we hope that other countries will develop systems that are as accommodating as US-VISIT as, you know, that move quickly and do not inconvenience the passengers. And we're glad to develop those cooperations with other nations, and I think we're trying to do that through the international standards.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay, let's go to Italy.

QUESTION: Giampiero Gramaglia, Italian News Agency ANSA.

I need two clarifications, very short, and I have a question. The two clarifications: Are the Canadians the only one exception worldwide?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: The exceptions would be the Canadians, the border crossing cardholders for Mexican citizens, and then diplomats that are exempted from international agreements.

QUESTION: Second clarification. The 27 country visitors, they still don't need a visa? They have to submit to the procedures, but they don't need a visa?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Correct.

QUESTION: All right. The question is the two measures you announced today, were they taken after consultations with the 27 countries? Or were they taken on a unilateral decision by the United States?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: There was substantial discussion. I know that I personally had visits with a number of foreign counterparts on the subject. It was a general discussion. What's the reaction? This is something we're considering. What do you think? It was not 100 percent uniform, necessarily. But I had substantial discussions. I know Secretary Ridge did as well.

And I also know that, obviously, the State Department today, I mean, has been briefing the ambassadors from the affected countries and we've had communications through our ambassadors overseas as well. So I think there's been significant dialogue on it and certainly I think that their discussion has been helpful.

MR. SMITH: I would add, too, many Visa Waiver Program countries have come to the State Department and to the U.S. Government to request the extension of that October 26 deadline, recognizing that they will not be able to meet that.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay, we'll go to the woman in the fourth row.

QUESTION: Katherine McConnell with the Washington File.

Following up on -- you're talking about the briefings at the State Department with the ambassadors. What other public education plans do you have in order to avoid a rush of people that have current visas that need to get the new visas and are going to be wanting to come to the U.S.?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: Of course, if Congress, in fact, grants this extension, then this should avoid any problem with Visa Waiver countries having to go in and acquire visas to accomplish their travel.

In reference to US-VISIT and the decision in that regard, we are doing substantial international outreach. We have a public relations firm that is helping us develop messages for international passengers through the airlines, through airports, in the international press. So we want to make sure that there's as much information out there as possible as to how this works, that we continue to welcome, it's a security measure that will also accomplish facilitating travel.

I'm going to -- and that's one of the reasons that this will be in place by September 30th. We have some time in which to enhance that communication to our guests abroad. I'll be traveling to help communicate that message as well later this month.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay, let's go to the gentleman in the front row.

QUESTION: Norbert Rief, Die Presse newspaper, Austria.

The fingerprints you take from travelers, do you save those fingerprints? Are they stored? If yes, can they be used for criminal investigations?

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: They are kept. And the reason they are kept is that we want to facilitate travel. And so once we confirm the identity of an international passenger, traveler, the next time they come in, say three months later, we will confirm their identity immediately; we won't have to refer them to secondary inspection. And so that's how we confirm the identity, by keeping those finger scans in our system.

The last part of your question: Will that be used for criminal enforcement purposes? Initially, of course, we check against our criminal databases because that's how we've caught about 200 criminal aliens trying to come into our country illegally. It would be -- and, obviously, for a terrorist, if we had a terrorist fingerprint, certainly we would want to hit that against our system as well.

So it would be for -- strictly protected under privacy rules. We have a very strong privacy policy in place. We have a chief privacy officer that reviews everything that we do. We're doing everything that we can to assure the protection of all the information in this system.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Okay, if we have time for a last question, we'll go to the gentleman in the back. Final question.

QUESTION: Thank you. Rudolf Mader from Swiss National Public Radio.

I have a question regarding the PNR program adopted that airlines should give to the U.S. before arriving here in the U.S. The European Parliament has, this week, decided not to accept the solution that has been negotiated, and it looks like the EU Commission should renegotiate this issue. Is the U.S. open to such negotiations?

And Switzerland, not being part of the EU, how is this PNR issue settled with Switzerland?

Thank you.

UNDER SECRETARY HUTCHINSON: The vote of the European Parliament, first of all, was very close. It was a non-binding vote and so the adequacy finding can be made notwithstanding the vote of the European Parliament. And we certainly hope that the European Commission will allow the data sharing to go forward.

It's noteworthy that the European Commission itself has passed initiatives to share passenger data among the European countries, recognizing that enhances safety. We need to have the same protection for our international visitors coming to the United States.

So we hope that we can reach a conclusion and we hope we will not have to renegotiate because we've gone through eight months of negotiation in very good faith, added privacy protections, accommodated many of the European concerns. So we hope that it will move forward. We look forward to working with our European partners in regard to that.

Thank you.

MR. BOOKBINDER: Thank you very much, Under Secretary Hutchinson, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Smith.

Thank you all for coming today. Goodbye now.