Congress Warned Against Passport Requirement

• 
  SAVE
• 
  SHARE
• 
  TEXT SIZE
• 
  PRINT
• 
  COMMENT
• 
  PDF

. October 14, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) - New York businesses warned Congress Thursday that requiring passports at the border will disrupt trade and hurt tourism, while one official tried to reassure lawmakers that an alternative ID would probably cost about $50. Howard Zemsky, leader of a Buffalo-area business group, warned lawmakers: "Don't turn the war on terrorism into the war on tourism."

He and other witnesses outlined their fears that a new rule to require passports at all land crossings into the United States by 2008 would clog up commerce with the country's biggest trading partner, Canada, and keep out critical tourism dollars.

As part of the government's post-Sept. 11 tightening of security measures, the Department of Homeland Security and Department of State announced the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which requires passports or one of four other secure documents at border crossings.

Officials on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border argue the passport rule would reduce trade and leisure travel between the two countries. The government, however, maintains it is necessary to prevent terrorists from entering the country.

Lawmakers sounded almost as concerned as the witnesses, with many on the committee questioning if state driver's licenses could be upgraded to substitute for passports.

"This is a looming crisis at our borders," said committee chairman Donald Manzulla, R-Ill.

Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, and Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, said just the talk of the rule is already having a chilling effect on travel back and forth, and a passport requirement would essentially throw a bureaucratic wall up between tightly connected communities.

Janice Kephart, a lawyer for the now defunct 9/11 Commission, said the new rules were critical to keeping out terrorists who can get fake drivers licenses or other forms of ID.

She also said the State Department was creating a North American travel card, a cheaper alternative to a $97 passport.

"This card will be about half the cost of a passport, fit into a wallet like a driver's license, protect privacy, (and) can be vetted against national security information," Kephart said.

A Detroit-based manager for DaimlerChrysler told lawmakers that his supply chain runs right over the border, part of a "just-in-time" manufacturing system that reduces costs by rapid deliveries of inventory.

Under that system, the carmaker moves 700 truckloads a day between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, said the manager, William Cook.

He urged Congress to make sure that whatever changes are implemented, they don't turn the border into a giant bottleneck for his company's production line.

The head of a national manufacturing group said businesses are already navigating a maze of options for different government identification cards.

"We've got so many different pieces of new ID that we're creating," said Engler, also a former governor of Michigan. "Everybody's designing a piece of it and the pieces don't fit very well."