Visa Plan Meets Unexpected Opposition

Lawmakers trying to expand a program that allows Europeans to enter the U.S. without visas were told Thursday that the proposed rules are still too restrictive.

The Senate has passed the package, and the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Europe heard from ambassadors and others involved with the process.

The current program allows citizens from most Western European countries and some from other parts of the world to enter the country without visas. It excludes many of the newer European Union member states, however, particularly those that were within the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. The Senate-passed bill would bring most of them into the visa program but with restrictions.

Ambassador Andras Simonyi from Hungary, one of the countries to be brought in, said in a statement prepared for the subcommittee that the restrictions are damaging the image of the United States in his country.

"The Hungarian public gets a feeling that our citizens are not welcome to visit the USA based on the mere assumption that they cannot be trusted to return to their homelands," Simonyi said.

President Bush is traveling early next month to two other countries seeking to join the program, Poland and the Czech Republic. The Bush administration, which favors limited expansion of the program, would like to reward allies who have been supportive in the Iraq war and in anti-terror cooperation.

At the same time, it worries that the visa waiver program could make it easier for terrorists to enter the United States.

Under the Senate legislation, some citizens of the European Union's 27 member nations probably still would have to obtain visas before traveling to the United States.

A less-restrictive measure is being considered in the House, and the two would have to be reconciled for a final version to be passed. U.S. officials were to appear Thursday at a House hearing on the issue.

Under public pressure, the governments in those countries have been prodding the United States to make changes to ease travel and acknowledge their status in the West's elite clubs, the European Union and NATO.

"We want to get to the point where the first-class European allies won't be treated as second class," Slovakia's ambassador to Washington, Rastislav Kacer, said in an interview.

A number of ambassadors whose countries are seeking entry to the program, including Lithuania's envoy to Washington, Audrius Bruzga, said the onerous process of obtaining visas is undermining the U.S. image in their countries.

"This issue dominates press coverage of relations with the United States in Lithuania," Bruzga said.

Lawmakers were looking to improve relations when they passed the bill sponsored by Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio. But last-minute changes to the bill would impose stricter requirements that probably would exclude a number of the countries. Those requirements are based on the number of a country's citizens who have been denied visas or exceeded their legal stays in the United States.

Seven of the countries whose citizens are required to obtain visas have hired a Washington lobbying firm, Dutko Worldwide, to sway lawmakers. Those countries are Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia.

Their ambassadors signed a letter to members of Congress this week objecting to the legislation. They said the amendment shifts the focus from dealing with security policy concerns to issues of illegal immigration. The letter calls for passing the House legislation without the Senate's restriction.

A number of the countries whose representatives are lobbying against the measure probably would meet the requirements but say they want to speak in concert with the others.

"We are in the position of solidarity with Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and other countries," said Jaroslav Kurfurst, deputy chief of mission in Washington for thCzech Republic. That is among the countries that probably would meet the requirements.
Source: cbsnews.com