4:00 P.M. EDT
Real Audio of Briefing
MR. PRINCE: Good afternoon, and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center for a briefing today on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. We are very pleased to have with us today Frank Moss, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services, and Elaine Dezenski, Acting Assistant Secretary for Border and Transportation Security Policy and Planning, Department of Homeland Security.
After a brief introduction, of course, we will take Q&A. I would like to take advantage of this opportunity, though, to announce that tomorrow at 2 p.m. we will have a briefing on accuracy in media with Todd Leventhal, an expert on misinformation in the media, and Dante Chinni of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Two o'clock tomorrow.
Mr. Moss, please go ahead.
MR. MOSS: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for this presentation and discussion. What I would like to do is briefly summarize the Western Hemisphere program and then turn it over to Elaine for some DHS-specific questions, and then we'd both be happy to take your questions over the next few minutes.
First of all, what are we trying to do here? We have announced today a three-year phased implementation of a requirement established under Section 7209 of our Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. This provision means that by January 1, 2008, American citizens returning from travel to the Caribbean or American citizens returning from basically anywhere in the Western Hemisphere will be required to have a passport or other documentation -- Elaine will fill in some details on that -- issued by DHS to facilitate their return to the United States. This program also affects, in at least one instance -- in two instances, other nationals. It does change existing provisions regarding travel to the United States by people from Bermuda as well as from Canada.
What we're trying to do in this program is really two things. One I think is fairly obvious, is to rationalize or standardize the documentation presented at ports of entry so that our inspectors are really dealing with a more narrowly focused number of documents and are able to really pay attention to those documents and not being able to asked to adjudicate literally thousands of potential birth certificates.
But the other thing we're trying to do, which flows directly from the standardization of documents, is that we're trying to facilitate the movement of people across our borders. We are not trying to do this in a way that complicates travel, but we also recognize that we don't have all the answers. So what we're actually announcing today is our intention to publish in the next few days an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, to use the bureaucratese, but this is basically an announcement that will appear in the Federal Register and will solicit comments from affected communities, groups, individuals, what have you, which will help guide the development of the program and eventually the final rule, which we plan on publishing this fall.
We plan to implement this program currently in three phases. Phase one will go into effect at the end of this December and will apply to American citizens returning from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Central America. This will impose what is really viewed as a passport requirement for these people and we estimate that this demand will increase -- our demand for passports will increase by about 900,000 a year as a result.
One year later, December 21, 2006, the same requirement then expands so that it covers all air and sea travel to the United States from the Western Hemisphere, and what we're really talking about there is air and sea travel to Canada and Mexico.
Finally, a year hence, or the end of 2007, this requirement goes into effect across our land borders. And what we're trying to do today is to announce this so that, really, travelers, and as well as concerned governments, have an opportunity to get ready for this. We know we need time to gear up our production of passports in the case of the State Department, DHS with its registered travel documents, and we really don't want to have a situation where people basically don't know about this or are surprised when it goes into effect next December or the December afterwards.
We have a robust plan underway. It certainly very heavily involves media contacts, media outreach, outreach to the airline industry, the cruise ship industry, other governments. We've talked, for example, this morning to representatives of embassies throughout the Western Hemisphere about this. And what we're trying to do is educate people so that they can make informed decisions about how this new program affects them and what they must do to come into compliance. But again, as I said earlier, we recognize we don't have all the answers. We're looking for guidance from people who are affected by this and we will obviously factor those comments into our eventual final plan, our final rule, and our implementation strategy.
That's basically it from the State Department perspective. I'd like to turn it over to Elaine for some comments from the DHS perspective, and then I think we'll go to questions and answers.
Elaine.
MS. DEZENSKI: Thank you, Frank. I think the way to look at this from a departmental or DHS perspective is to think about three different themes that are kind of coming across with this new regulation: the first theme, security; the second theme, facilitation; and the third being flexibility. And let me go through those and give you a sense for some of the issues that are playing out with this new requirement.
On security, what we're trying to do with this Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is really raise the bar, raise the minimum standards for a travel to certain parts of the world. And essentially, what we're asking U.S. citizens and Canadian citizens and citizens from certain Caribbean countries and Bermuda, is to consider travel in and out of the U.S. and to those particular areas as equivalent to traveling to Europe or Asia. The reality is we're living in post-9/11 environment and we need to look at our border security in a more comprehensive way.
So with this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which is rooted in a legislative requirement, as Frank mentioned -- the Intelligence Reform bill, which was passed in December -- we are responding to a congressional mandate and moving forward proactively on strengthening our border security measures. So that's the first piece: security.
The second piece is facilitation and I can think of a couple of examples here. The first is facilitation from the point of the traveler. Moving towards more uniformity in terms of what type of documents are required to move in and out of the country is a plus for travelers because there is no more questioning about whether that driver's license can get you into Mexico or Canada or to the Caribbean. We're getting to a point where we're harmonizing and that's important because we reduce the number of questions that come up in terms of what is actually required.
It's also facilitation from our perspective. Our border inspectors deal with many, many people every day. We have about 1.1 million people coming into the country across our ports of entry. And the reality is we have very little time to manage risk as people are coming in. So the more that we move to a harmonization of document requirements, the easier it will be for the traveler to get through and for our border inspectors to be able to facilitate that travel of legitimate passengers. So that's the second point.
The third point is flexibility and this gets into additional types of documents that might be utilized. Now, Frank mentioned there are three different phases to our proposal, the first being requirements in the air and sea environment at the end of this year for the Caribbean and Bermuda, coming into the U.S. And that would apply to U.S. citizens and Canadian citizens.
The second requirement is also in the air and sea environment but would expand to include Canada and Mexico.
Now, the third phase is getting into the land borders and that's where we think we have some flexibility to utilize some other types of documentation. So, in addition to the passport, what we're proposing is the popular use of four different documents.
The first would be what we call a BCC, or Border Crossing Card, which is issued to Mexican nationals and requires a passport. And it's similar to applying for a visa, but instead of getting a visa you would actually get a Border Crossing Card. It's utilized by Mexican nationals who come into the country on regular basis, to visit family, for work purposes, whatever the case may be. So that's one option at the southern border that we think will be flexible in terms of those document requirements.
The second option is what we call the SENTRI card and the SENTRI card is also used at the southern border. It can apply to U.S. citizens, Mexican citizens or third-party citizens who cross that border on a regular basis. And in order to get a SENTRI card, you do have to present some documentation that verifies your citizenship. And that's really the key: Does the alternative document allow us to verify your identify and where you're from?
The third option would be what we call our NEXUS card, and the NEXUS card is also applicable to U.S. citizens as well as Canadian citizens and then any third-party nationals who might also be interested. But it applies to crossing on the northern border. Similar to SENTRI, there are requirements that would verify your identification and your country of origin.
The fourth option is what we call our FAST Card, Free and Secure Trade, and that applies to commercial truck drivers on both the northern and the southern border. So if you're crossing routinely -- we have, actually, many FAST Cards already in use and that is one document where we think we have the right level of security and could utilize that in lieu of a passport for those commercial drivers.
So those are the four options that we're proposing at this point. As we move forward with the implementation of this program, it is possible that additional types of registered traveler programs could be available. We'll look at that on an evolving basis as we continue to work through those issues within the department, but we think there is some flexibility that we can look at for the land border, which is really where we have the most challenges in terms of facilitating a great number of people and doing so in a way that doesn't slow things down too much.
So those are the three areas that we're really looking to address in this rulemaking: security, facilitation and flexibility. And with that, I'll open it up for some questions.
MR. PRINCE: Thank you very much. We are now open for questions. Yes, right here on the -- please wait for the microphone.
QUESTION: Thanks.
MR. PRINCE: Please state your name and the name of your media organization.
QUESTION: Klaus Marre with the German Press Agency. I have a couple questions, actually. The Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking obviously has a comment period which is often 30, 60, or 90 days, and then you have to respond to all comments before you issue a final rule and then the first part already applies very soon.
So are you worried that you're going to get it out in time if there are a lot of comments?
MS. DEZENSKI: Well, at this point, we're anticipating that we'll be able to issue that final rule by the fall, but that's exactly why we have the Advance Notice going out now and why we're working pretty closely with State to get the word out about what the requirements are proposed to be so that folks who do have travel coming up in the near term can make those accommodations as quickly as possible.
MR. MOSS: I would just add one other thought to it, which is we also expect that most of the comments received will probably focus on the third phase of this, as opposed to perhaps the first two phases, where at least we anticipate perhaps less controversy, particularly in terms of air and sea travel. So we're obviously looking forward to the public comments, but we do think there may be more about the land-border crossings than phases 1 and 2.
QUESTION: You also said that in the first phase there might be 900,000 people that would need a passport. So how are you going to make sure that you actually reach the 900,000 people so that somebody who wants to go and -- over New Year's and wants to go to the Bahamas and then can't go because they weren't even aware of this?
MR. MOSS: Okay. That's an excellent question and I think what it really comes down to is outreach, outreach, outreach, and then more outreach. For example, Thursday and Friday, Elaine and I will be in Florida appearing before the American Society of Travel Agents. We have already spoken today to the travel agents, to the airlines, to cruise ship operators, what have you. We've spoken to the foreign governments. We certainly expect this to be a major news story in the coming days. We're putting this up on various websites. We're asking the industry to link to our websites to get this story out. So we're hopeful, quite honestly, that we can, in fact, get the story out to those people who will be affected in the first phase.
The second side, obviously, is not only do they have to know about it, but we have to be in a position to deal with the consequences of that in terms of passport demand. We have just undertaken a first phase of major hiring to ramp up to a capacity of about 10 million passports a year. We're ramping up beyond that in the coming months so that we will actually have the capacity growth to about 10.5 million passports this year, 12 million a year from now, 14 million in 2007, and then theoretically, if we need it, a sustained capacity of 17 million beginning in 2008.
But I certainly do make one final plea to you, which is if you all are aware of opportunities where you think it would be useful for us to speak to groups, it may not be the two of us, but we certainly do want to reach out to groups, to educate people about this requirement, and we certainly look to the media to help us do that.
MR. PRINCE: Okay. Let's go right here in the middle. Microphone, please.
QUESTION: Hi, Sheldon Alberts with Can-West News Services. Can you just clarify for me something about the Border Crossing Cards? Are you saying that you would require a passport and a Border Crossing Card, and are you looking at specific biometric requirements for the Border Crossing Card? And I guess, you know, that would raise the question of is there the capability to do that at this point.
MS. DEZENSKI: I'll take a crack at that one. The Border Crossing Card is given to Mexican nationals, and in order to obtain that card you must present a valid Mexican passport. So we wouldn't be requiring the passport in addition to the BCC, but that is a prerequisite to get that card initially.
So as far as looking at biometrics and technology, we're actually looking at testing some RF radio frequency type technology within the Border Crossing Card, which would make it much easier to track folks as they come in and as they go out. It's a multiple cross type of document, so obviously you can use it more than once. But we are looking at implementing some type of RF technology. We're just starting those tests right now at the southern border so more to follow on that over the next, I'd say, four to six months.
MR. MOSS: Let me just add two thoughts, if I can, on that. One is, in Mexico, as I understand -- as I remember from when this program was set up, you can obtain passports for different periods of validity. And what people actually did was they acquired the passport for the shortest period of validity in order to establish their nationality for the purposes of this card. But once you have the Border Crossing Card, it is, in fact, a self-effective document. You present the Border Crossing Card by itself to enter the United States.
The second point is it already does, in fact, include biometric technology. There are two electronic fingerprints written to the optical zone on the reverse of the card, as well as to some databases here in the U.S.
MR. PRINCE: Okay, yes, right here and then we'll go back.
QUESTION: Good afternoon, my name is Paul Koring with the Globe & Mail of Canada. I have three, if I may, Canada-related questions.
One, as I read this, nothing is being asked of Canadian citizens, either coming initially from South America and the Caribbean, secondly by air from Canada to Mexico, and thirdly across the 49th by land that isn't being asked of American citizens; in other words, you're not treating Canadians any more harshly than you're treating Americans. Is that correct?
MS. DEZENSKI: That's correct. Yes.
MR. MOSS: Absolutely. We'll hire you, too.
(Laughter.)
QUESTION: Is it correct that, currently, Americans going to Canada need more documentation than they need to get back into the United States?
MS. DEZENSKI: Not to my knowledge. For example, I recently traveled to Ottawa and was able to use a driver's license to get in. That was the air environment. A lot of people do use a passport but -- and, obviously, our requirements that are being proposed here would not go into effect for a while longer. So no current requirement for a passport.
Now, we should just make the distinction. These are requirements about people coming into and out of the U.S. We obviously don't control what the Canadians might want to require at any given time.
QUESTION: But, in fact, has there not been whole series of bilateral negotiations so that sort of what's good for the goose is good for the gander, both ways kind of routine? Is that not underlying this?
MS. DEZENSKI: Well, we certainly have had a lot of bilateral discussions on a host of border issues, everything from visa harmonization to how to pre-clear cargo and keep the border secure while making sure that people and goods are moving across the border. In fact, the President announced the Security and Prosperity Initiative, I think it was March 23rd, where we laid out some new things that we were going to be looking at both with Canada and with Mexico that fall into this kind of Smart Border, more secure border arena.
As far as the specific documentation requirements, I don't have anything specific there at this point but, you know, there has been a move to try to harmonize where we can.
QUESTION: And if I may, lastly, this coming December 31st, the only thing that changes for a Canadian is if he happens to be going to the United States from Bermuda or the Caribbean and is trying to do it with his driver's license; is that right?
MS. DEZENSKI: That's exactly right.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MR. PRINCE: Okay. Let's go one row back, please.
QUESTION: It's Tim Harper from the Toronto Star. I have two quick questions. One is, I'm having difficulty getting a handle on exactly how many people crossing the 49th parallel will be affected because -- perhaps you can explain to me, does anybody know the numbers or the percentage of Canadians or Americans who still traverse that border using a driver's license as opposed to a passport? Because there is a sense in Canada that since September 11th, more Canadians are routinely carrying passports as ID coming into this country.
MS. DEZENSKI: Absolutely. Well, we can give you a couple of statistics. I'm not sure it's exactly on point with your question, but these might be helpful. About 20 percent -- 23 percent of the American population holds a passport. On the Canadian side, it's about 40 percent of the Canadian population, so it's a little bit higher.
And you're right, since 9/11, I think folks sometimes automatically have inferred that they need to have their document with them when they travel so I think we're seeing more of that at the border.
But let me give you a couple of statistics in terms of the top land border crossings at the northern border. At Buffalo, we have about 45,000 folks crossing on a daily basis. In Detroit, it's about 40,000. And at Blaine, Washington, it's about 15,000. So that gives you some sense of the volumes that we're working on. At the southern border, it's a little bit higher. So, there's a significant amount of traffic and some people are already presenting those types of official documentation, but not everyone.
QUESTION: So that leads me to my follow-up. At the popular border crossings, such as Buffalo or Windsor, Detroit, where, you know, people cross every day to go to the casino --
MS. DEZENSKI: Right.
QUESTION: -- people live in Fort Erie and play hockey in Buffalo.
MS. DEZENSKI: Right.
QUESTION: Are these the people who are more likely to carry passports or are these people who have already gone ahead and -- or are going to have to make changes? In other words, if you're an 88-year-old lady living in Windsor, as somebody commented today, and you wanted --
MS. DEZENSKI: Right. And you wanted to get to the bingo game. Yeah.
QUESTION: And you want to get to the bingo game, how are you going to convince her to go out and go through all this?
(Laughter.)
MS. DEZENSKI: This is one of our practice questions, actually.
(Laughter.)
MS. DEZENSKI: And it's a very good question. And, you know, we don't have the type of information we can tell you right now how many would fall into that sort of local interest, tourist category or coming across on a regular basis. But chances are, if you're coming across for work purposes or you have family that you're visiting on a routine basis, you've probably looked into the NEXUS card because it really does make that facilitation at the border and you'd certainly want that.
I have a couple of statistics that might help in that regard. We have about 45,000 people enrolled in the FAST program, which is the commercial driver program. That includes both the northern and southern borders. In the NEXUS program, which is just a northern border, we have about 76,000 people. So, you know, I'd say that the preponderance are probably business travelers, but you do get folks who are crossing for other purposes.
For folks, who, you know, were going across to Windsor, for example, to use the casinos or coming across into the U.S. for other purposes, that may require a change. These folks are going to have to look at whether they want to get a facilitated registered traveler type of card or if they want to get the passport. If you're a frequent traveler anyway and you're going anywhere else outside of the country we'd probably advise that you should get the passport because it's utilized for lots of other purposes.
MR. MOSS: I would just add one thought.– Clearly the Government of Canada has been aware of this provision since it was adopted and we have had discussions with Canada on implementation, including the Canadian Passport Agency. Just as we are gearing up to do a lot more work over the next few years, they're facing the same challenge and the same, quite honestly, the opportunities that are there. But they're prepared to help meet the demand as well from the Canadian side.
MR. PRINCE: Okay, right there in the middle, please.
QUESTION: Hi, Santiago Tavara from Notimex. What are the changes for Mexican citizens on the BCC initiative? I know that they are using already some of the documents that you mentioned.
MR. MOSS: I'll get that one. Quite honestly, really, for Mexican citizens there is no change. Mexican citizens who routinely cross the border on the land borders use the Border Crossing Card as the common document, the so-called laser visa. That is already a highly secure machine-readable document with embedded biometrics. So really, for the Mexican citizens, they will -- this is at least what's in our proposed rulemaking -- they would continue to use that to cross the border.
There may be a subsequent generation of Border Crossing Cards using some of the techniques or technology, excuse me, that Ms. Dezenski was talking about, radio frequency, ID technology and things of this nature. But we really do not see this having a significant impact on the movement of Mexican nationals to the United States. The return of American citizens to the United States, however, is another thing and those are people who will have to acquire, perhaps, some more formal documentation than they currently have.
MR. PRINCE: Yes, back here to the middle again, please.
QUESTION: Okay. Just a clarification on the Border Crossing Cards. If you need a passport as a requirement to get it, essentially you need a passport. I mean, is that what we're talking about here? Everyone's going to need a passport?
MS. DEZENSKI: Yeah, it's probably worth a little bit of clarification on the Border Crossing Card. Mexican nationals coming into the U.S. require a visa. That's not a requirement for Canadians coming into the U.S., so that's the distinction. So, in order to get the Border Crossing Card, it's almost like applying for a visa, but instead of getting that you would get the Border Crossing Card, which has a slightly different set of parameters with it. You can travel within, I think it's 75 miles of the border for up to 30 days. So that's a distinction with that document. So you just have to separate that from issuance of a passport because there's actually a visa requirement coming into the U.S. from Mexico for Mexican nationals.
MR. PRINCE: Wait for the mike.
QUESTION: If you're going to apply that to Canadians, then we won't need a passport to get the Border Crossing Card, or do we know yet?
MS. DEZENSKI: No, we won't -- there's no change in terms of those requirements for the Canadians. For example, we're not requiring that Canadians now obtain a visa to come into the U.S. They simply will need to have a passport or one of the documents that I talked about.
MR. MOSS: We're not planning on exporting the BCC model to Canada. Perhaps that makes it clearer? The BCC, the Border Crossing Card, will remain a Mexican southern border document, not one that we use on the northern border.
QUESTION: Okay. So what will be used on the northern border? You don't --
MS. DEZENSKI: Either a passport or a NEXUS card. Certain countries have -- we require certain countries to have not only a passport but a visa to enter the U.S. Mexico is one of those countries. Canada is not one of those countries. So as we look at rolling out these new documentation requirements, we're simply looking at requiring the use of a passport or what we would consider to be equivalent. We're not adding in an additional layer with a visa requirement.
MR. PRINCE: Yes, right here and then we'll come back over here.
QUESTION: Can I just continue that clarification? To get a NEXUS card right now or, if you're a Canadian trucker applying for a FAST card, you do not need a passport and you will not need a passport and there are already biometrics in those two. Are all three of those things correct?
MS. DEZENSKI: That's correct. The only caveat is that this is a proposal. What we're proposing is that these would be the documentation requirements, so it's not final. It's not a must until the rule is final.
QUESTION: But NEXUS and FAST have biometrics?
MS. DEZENSKI: Both do. Yes, that's correct.
MR. PRINCE: Okay, let's come over here to the other side.
QUESTION: In discussing this with the countries, for example, in the Caribbean, have they -- or with Mexico, have they voiced concerns that they feel this might negatively impact tourism?
MS. DEZENSKI: We'll probably have a two-part answer here. I think there's always some concern whenever there's a new requirement as to how that will address facilitation at the borders, particularly the land borders. And getting back to our phased implementation, one of the reasons why that land border comes last is because we know we have the greatest challenges.
But I would say the upshot is that there is a harmonization factor here and we're getting to a point where it's very clear what you need to get into the country and it's a uniform documentation requirement. And that should make it easier for travelers over the mid term and the long term because there's no question about what you need.
It also makes it much easier at our border inspection stations because we're not looking at 1,500 different types of documents. For example, someone could show up with their birth certificate and a driver's license. Well, there are 8,000 different types of birth certificates in the U.S. alone, so our ability for border inspectors to process all of that information quickly is much more difficult. When you apply for a passport, you have to show a birth certificate, but our colleagues at the State Department have a database that they can go to, to look at whether the document is legitimate.
So those are the types of things that will probably help facilitate traffic at the border and we think will get us to a better place from both security and from a trade perspective.
MR. MOSS: I would just like to add a couple of thoughts. One is that, clearly, governments in the region have certainly been aware of many changes to securing the post-9/11 environment and I think some governments had already foreseen that this was a likely occurrence.
The second issue really goes to the heart, though, of the cruise line industry and to a certain extent the airline industry, and that is, in the cruise lines, for example, some of them have, over the last couple of years, really begun to either: (a) require or strongly encourage passports; or, at a very minimum, incentivize the use of a passport as opposed to the driver's license/birth certificate option. For example, some of them have had two lanes to board the ship: one with passport, which was basically the fast lane; the slower lane on the other side with the driver's license and the birth certificate. And, as well, that then served when they were calling at the islands in the Caribbean.
So to echo what Elaine was saying, I think we're really making a move here which I think we can implement in a way that not only doesn't serve as a detriment to tourism, but really will also help those governments enhance their own border security by helping to ensure that the people that they're admitting who claim to be Americans or Canadians or -- Americans in this case, obviously, are in fact American citizens.
So we think, actually, there are some win-win possibilities here.
MR. PRINCE: Okay, let's go right back here, please.
QUESTION: I'm Nestor Ikeda, an Associated Press reporter for Latin America. In the second part of your press release, you said that there are citizens of other countries in the Western Hemisphere that are not required to present a passport to enter or reenter the U.S. Could you tell us, what are those other countries and what their situation is going to be under the new initiative?
MR. MOSS: Okay, I'll take that one. Really, we're talking about two groups. We're talking about Canadians, primarily, and then Bermudians who fall into a certain category and I --
STAFF MEMBER: Overseas territories.
MR. MOSS: Overseas territories, thank you very much. Those are the two groups we're talking about. And as we talked about earlier, this will apply in the same fashion to those groups as it does to American citizens. A Bermudian with an overseas territory passport will have to have a passport to enter the United States, just as an American citizen returning from Bermuda will need one. So, in other words, it is an equal treatment and obviously, the Canadian group is very large. The group from Bermuda is really quite small.
And in the case of Panama, it's American citizens going into Panama and that was just a vestige, really, of old days. You may still admit them to Panama without a passport, but to come back into the United States they will need a passport. And I would also note in that case, I think it was Costa Rica which just in the last six months or so -- which used to allow Americans to go there without a passport -- has, in fact, changed their own policy. So this issue of enhancing border security by calling for standardized documentation is not an issue just for the United States.
Does that answer your question, I hope?
QUESTION: Yes.
MR. MOSS: Thank you.
MR. PRINCE: Yes, back there, please.
QUESTION: Jyri Raivio, Helsingin Sanomat. Can I make an Eastern Hemisphere-related question, now that we have experts here? And it's about this October deadline for the biometric passports. What's the latest on that?
MR. MOSS: When we're not doing this show we actually did the 10/26/05 show. (Laughter.)
MS. DEZENSKI: We had an over-under on when that question would come up, but -- you want me to take this?
MR. MOSS: You take it.
MS. DEZENSKI: You took it last time, okay. Yeah, this one has been percolating along for a while. What you're referring to is the deadline for biometrically-enabled passports from Visa Waiver countries, so these are the 27 countries around the world, most of them in Western Europe, who would now be required to present machine-readable biometrically-enabled passports by the end of October 2005.
The reality is that this is a very challenging deadline for lots of reasons, for operational reasons, for technology reasons. There's been quite a bit of discussion, both with our allies in the Visa Waiver Program, these foreign governments who are now under these timetables, as well as the Congress, and those discussions will continue over the next couple months.
I can't tell you exactly where we're going to end up, but I know that certain members of the Visa Waiver Program have expressed their views to Congress about their concerns about not meeting that deadline. We think there are probably three or four countries who will meet that deadline, but the preponderance of countries will not and those countries that are responsible for the highest volume of passengers coming into the U.S. under that program will not make that deadline.
So I think there's going to be more to follow on that. We're continuing to talk to Congress about where we're at in terms of our issues on this side of the border and I know they're hearing from the Visa Waiver countries as well.
MR. PRINCE: Yes, go ahead.
QUESTION: Yes. Will this law have to be changed by the Congress or can this be done by some administrative regulation?
MS. DEZENSKI: In order to change the deadline, it would be have to be via new legislation.
MR. PRINCE: Right here, please.
QUESTION: Apologies, but if I can do a follow-up on that issue.
MR. PRINCE: Can you identify yourself, please?
QUESTION: Andrew Ward from the Financial Times. And I believe that a leader of the British business community, Sir Digby Jones, the Confederation of Business Industries, is making a speech tonight about this. And I believe he's going to have some quite strong words of criticism about the October 26th deadline. But I've seen the language that he's going to use and I've also seen the press coverage of this in Europe. And it seems that this is being portrayed as something which is going to force all Europeans to have biometric passports after October 26th.
Are you concerned about people spreading misinformation, effectively?
MS. DEZENSKI: I think this may be another two-part answer. Yeah, we're always concerned about that. Certainly, when these types of issues can often take on a life of their own and, you know, to the extent that we can help clarify what the congressional requirements are and how we're moving along to meet them as best we can, we'll all be better off. But yeah, I mean, there's a tremendous amount of spin that ensues when we get into these issues that affect a significant number of people. So if there's anything we can do to help clarify, let us know.
MR. MOSS: A point I would like to add is that even as the law is currently written, it applies to passports that are issued after October 26th, 2005. If you have a passport issued one day before, it is good for the entire validity period. And just speaking from my own side here at the State Department, we have 62 million Americans with passports. We will begin to issue biometric passports this summer and then phase in over the next six to nine months, but we have certainly no intention whatsoever of calling in old passports. That would be -- I think, suicidal is the term, I think, that would come to mind.
So, yes, we are trying to address some of the claims that are made and we certainly understand from the State Department perspective the challenges that are being faced by other governments as well because we have seen every one of them: privacy issues, security issues, skimming issues, eavesdropping issues, procurement issues. We've had every one of the poxes that could fall upon us and we're working through the issue but it is a challenge. It is a technically difficult issue. It is not a question of will. It's a question of science and technology.
Thanks.
MR. PRINCE: Okay. Thank you very much.
MR. MOSS: Thank you all for coming.
MS. DEZENSKI: Thank you.
