House Passes Measure To Tighten Controls On Visa-Free Travel to US

American lawmakers voted overwhelmingly yesterday to impose restrictions making it more hard for visitors to Iraq, Syria and countries listed as supporting terrorism to travel visa-free to the United States.

After voting in the House of Representatives, results showed that 407 reps were in favor of the proposal to change the rules of visa-free travel, while 19 opposed to it.

Around 20 million travelers enter the US each year without a visa through the waiver program.

"This legislation will help close gaping security gaps and improve our ability to stop unsafe individuals before they reach our shores".

Travelling to the USA could soon be a lot more complicated for Australians, after the U.S. passed a bill to limit the ease of obtaining a visa in response to growing terrorist threats to the nation.

"It's critically important that we make sure that if there has been that kind of travel overseas that we do background checks and we make sure that we know who is coming into the United States in order to keep us safe", Noem said. This also brings to light the need to revoke passports of USA citizens who are fighting alongside ISIS. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), which has not yet been scheduled for a vote.

Nationals of Syria, Iraq and other countries with significant terror activity - or anyone who's traveled to those countries in the previous five years - could not participate in the visa waiver program.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California has called the measure a "good bill" and Josh Earnest, White House spokesman, said Tuesday that the Obama administration had previously indicated it supports the House measure. The travel industry, which backs the House bill as a balanced approach, says the Senate bill goes too far in adding new biometric requirements for all visa waiver travelers that might be hard to enact.

There are 38 countries whose passport holders are allowed to visit the US without having a visa.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, co-sponsored the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act, legislation to enhance the security of the Visa Waiver Program. "Terrorist fighters have America in their hateful, evil sights", Poe said in a speech on the House floor.

Congress should tread carefully when changing the visa waiver program because of "the tourism dollars that ride on that", he said in an interview. Both bills give the secretary of Homeland Security the authority to take countries out of the waiver system.