Department Of Homeland Security Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2008

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 -- (House of Representatives - May 09, 2007)

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. For the purpose of support only, I am in support of Mr. Royce's amendment. The database created by Interpol has proven to be very, very successful. The Swiss presently use the database provided by Interpol. They stop some 100 persons entering into that country per month. For the life of me, I cannot understand why CBP will not use it.

It is a commonsense amendment. I trust the Department, once we approve
it and ultimately pass the legislation, will follow the directions of Congress.

So I support the Royce amendment in its present form.

Imposters who would do us harm prize fraudulent passports as a way to gain entry into our country under false identities in order to carry out criminal or terrorist activities.

INTERPOL has created a ``Stolen and Lost Travel Document'' (SLTD) database to provide valuable and timely information about passports reported lost or stolen to database users in order to intercept imposters and assist law enforcement.

In the last couple of years, INTERPOL has populated its SLTD database with millions of passport numbers that were reported lost or stolen.

Receiving real-time reporting of lost and stolen passports would allow us to detect these imposters and prevent their entry into the U.S.

Other countries that use INTERPOL's SLTD database have been successful in intercepting imposters.

For example, the Swiss, have been stopping over 100 attempted entries per month using fraudulent passports since December 2005 on the basis of the real-time information INTERPOL has provided.

Yet, at U.S. Ports of Entry, Customs and Border Protection inspectors do not yet have access to INTERPOL's database at primary inspection, so this valuable anti-terrorism tool remains unavailable for screening persons trying to enter the U. S.

This amendment would require CBP to provide its inspectors access to INTERPOL's SLTD database at primary inspection within one year.

CBP has already declared that that it intends to implement use of INTERPOL's SLTD database as soon as possible; this amendment will ensure this takes place.

Support the Royce Amendment.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, for the record, CBP filed a privacy notice act informing the public that they had been utilizing the Automated Targeting System, otherwise known as ATS, for 5 years without public notice. When I learned of the problems associated with ATS, I immediately joined hundreds of others by filing a comment.

Mr. DENT. Would the gentleman yield?

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. I will not.

Filing a comment requesting that CBP take a second look at this program.

CBP has not re-issued a new notice, and the questions that I and many others have about ATS have not yet been answered. Until a new notice is released, I consider this program and this motion to recommit premature and the program itself highly questionable.

The amount of information collected by ATS and the fact that the information remains in the system for up to 40 years is reason enough to warrant a closer look.

The motion to recommit ignores the privacy act notice process that is under way, and I urge my colleagues to oppose it

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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