Strengthening the Visa Waiver Program for a Safer America

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) urged his colleagues to support H.R. 158, the Visa Waiver Program Improvement Act, which passed the House today with broad bipartisan support, 407-19.

Click the image to watch Scalise’s remarks

Remarks:

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank my colleague from Virginia for yielding. I’d like to rise in strong support of this important legislation from the gentlelady from Michigan, Mrs. Miller.

Mr. Speaker, to defeat ISIS it's going to take strong leadership, and it's also going to take a strong strategy. I think it's clear that the President's approach isn't working. In fact, our intelligence officials tell us that ISIS is not only not being contained, but now we're seeing that they're coming to America and they're attacking us here, and that's their stated goal. It's incumbent upon us to do everything we can, and frankly the American people deserve to know that our government is doing everything in our power to protect them from the threat of terrorists -- very real threats.

“So in the House, we've been taking decisive action. We've already passed a bill to address the problems of the lack of vetting in the refugee program – a program that ISIS themselves have said they plan to exploit in order to bring terrorists into America. The F.B.I. Director has even confirmed those concerns that we've expressed and we passed legislation to address that. Today, we're bringing forth strong bipartisan legislation to reform the troubled Visa Waiver Program. We've seen that thousands of people with western passports, including these Visa Waiver Program nations, have been going to some of the troubled regions, like Syria, Iraq, and other countries, and there ought to be a higher level of scrutiny. This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to work with those nations, to have a higher level of scrutiny, which will ultimately lead to a more secure United States of America. I encourage all our colleagues to pass this legislation. Let's continue to do what we need to do in the House of Representatives to protect the American people from the real threat that ISIS poses.”