Keep visa office at State Department, two panels say

The question of who should issue visas is shaping up as one of the battleground issues facing the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. Two out of the three committees with jurisdiction over the issue weighed in Wednesday, both declaring that the authority should remain with the State Department.

The House International Relations and Judiciary committees both approved amendments Wednesday that keep the visa-issuing authority with the State Department, but strengthen the Homeland Security Department's role. The committees adopted an amendment sponsored by Rep. Henry Hyde, D-Ill., chairman of the International Relations Committee. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., is expected to present a similar amendment during the House Government Reform markup of the bill on Thursday.

Under the Hyde amendment, the new secretary of Homeland Security would have the authority to set visa policy, train foreign-service consulates to interview visa applicants, and make the final determination on whether visas should be issued. Homeland Security also would have the authority to send officers overseas to identify and review cases that represent potential terrorist threats.

"The current system can be improved," said Lantos, ranking minority member and a co-sponsor of the successful amendment that strengthened Homeland Security's role in the visa process. "I do not believe we need to make fundamental changes."

The International Relations Committee adopted that amendment by a voice vote. But it quickly faced a tougher challenge later in the morning when the House Judiciary Committee adopted the amendment by a vote of 18 to 15.

Hyde was attempting to offer a compromise to a proposal from Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., to move all visa issuing to the Homeland Security Department. Hyde argued that such a move would create a huge, new bureaucracy within the new department. Currently, the State Department issues about 10 million visas annually, and rejects about 3 million.

Sensenbrenner said that foreign-service employees do not have the skills and motivation to identify and reject terrorist visa applications. Several of the Sept. 11 hijackers were issued U.S. visas.

Foreign-service employees are motivated to approve visas to appease the local U.S. ambassador who is trying to build goodwill by allowing local citizens into the United States, according to Sensenbrenner.

"It is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house," Sensenbrenner said at the Judiciary markup. Plus, foreign-service employees receive just a few hours of training in interviewing techniques; FBI agents receive over 50 hours of training in interview techniques, he said.

The markups came the same day that The Washington Post reported that a State Department employee in Qatar sold 70 visas to Jordanian nationals for $10,000 apiece. A roommate of the Sept. 11 hijackers obtained one of those phony visas.