U.S., Canadian Business Travel Groups Praise new WHTI Timeline

The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) and the Canadian Alliance of Business Travel lauded provisions of the 2007 Homeland Security spending bill related to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI).

The WHTI provisions of the bill, which passed both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, will keep the United States moving toward better border security while moving away from WHTI deadlines that would have jeopardized economic security for the nation and its Western Hemisphere neighbors.

Arising out of the 9/11 Commission recommendations, WHTI will require all U.S. citizens and visitors to present a passport or acceptable substitute document for entry into the United States from any country in the Western Hemisphere.

The measure was set to roll out over a series of dates from January 8, 2007 through January 1, 2008.

The confusion surrounding varying dates for differing modes of transportation, the lack of an effective plan for communicating the changes, and the absence to date of a widely available, affordable alternative to the passport combined to make WHTI a threat to the economic activity generated by business travel between the United States and other Western Hemisphere nations.

The requirements of WHTI stipulate that approved alternative documents can be used in lieu of a passport for entry into the United States. One such alternative document, the People Access Security Service (PASS Card), was jointly announced earlier this year by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of State (DOS).

The PASS Card promises to be a new generation of biometric identification which will be available in much the same way passports are available, but for a significantly reduced cost.

However, the PASS Card initiative has not been fully formulated to date, and details about its availability, its imbedded technology, and its usage have not been fully hashed out by the federal agencies.

NBTA believes that the new WHTI deadline for land and sea crossings will provide DHS and DOS a larger window of time to fully develop a robust and successful PASS card program.