S3354
the Boys and Girls Club and his Tribal government. But here is why I want to talk about Marty and why he has been such an inspiration not only in Kotzebue but throughout the State. On Thanksgiving 2015, Marty got sick, and over the next several weeks, he had to go to the hospital repeatedly. While he was there, he noticed a group of people who would gather around the free coffee that was served at the hospital. He approached one of them, a woman named Jo-Ann, and asked a very simple question: ‘‘Why do you guys hang around here? What are you doing?’’ She told him: ‘‘Well, we don’t really have another place to go right now.’’ This disturbed Marty greatly. At that time of year in Kotzebue, it can get down to 20 and 30 below zero—a difficult place. ‘‘You guys must be hungry,’’ he said to Jo-Ann, and she said that they were. So the next day and the day after that—5 days a week—Marty and Lucy together used their own money and their own lunch hour during the workweek to make sandwiches—a simple act—30 to 40 sandwiches for that group at the hospital. Every day, every person who needs one gets a sandwich, sometimes turkey and cheese, sometimes caribou or sheefish spread. Marty is anxious for the salmon season to start so he can make salmon spread sandwiches. They also get a juice box and dessert. Simple but generous. Recently, another generous Kotzebue resident, Sophie Foster, began making sandwiches as well, and before you know it, we have a whole community that is doing this, taking this simple example and getting involved. So now some people drop off cinnamon roles or fruit. Others bring back bulk items when they travel to Anchorage. Dozens of people in Kotzebue, AK, are now helping in this effort because of Marty’s simple act. People like Marty and his wife Lucy make my State truly unique and a wonderful place. His generosity—doing something seemingly so simple: making a sandwich for someone who is hungry—has now had a big impact not only in Kotzebue but in Alaska. Marty didn’t know the impact he would have when he began making sandwiches. ‘‘I was just trying to help a few people that day, make them happier.’’ Marty’s actions have initiated a growing conversation in Kotzebue about how best to take care of people who need help. It has drawn attention to homelessness and hunger—very important issues not only in Alaska but throughout the country. Marty spurred this important conversation in Kotzebue and in our State through his simple actions, and that has inspired all of us. Congratulations, Marty, for what you are doing, for your simple acts of inspiration, and for being our Alaskan of the Week. Madam President, I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
VerDate Sep 11 2014
June 8, 2017
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE
02:44 Jun 09, 2017
Jkt 069060
TRAVEL AND TOURISM
Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, I come to the floor today to highlight the importance of travel and tourism in our economy and also to make the point that we are welcoming of people from other countries—and we are welcoming of people in our country, as well—who want to be part, for a short time or a long time, of America. The travel and tourism business is an incredibly important part of the tourism economy. Last month, I, along with my fellow cochairs of the Senate Travel and Tourism Caucus—Senator AMY KLOBUCHAR, Senator DEAN HELLER, and Senator BRIAN SCHATZ—led the Senate in the passage of a resolution recognizing the week of May 7 as National Travel and Tourism Week. There are really good statistics— whether it is Missouri or West Virginia or the country at-large—on this topic. One out of every nine jobs in the United States depends on travel and tourism. It accounts for over 15 million jobs nationwide. International travel to the United States is our single largest export industry. The single largest thing where people bring money into our country is tourism to the United States. It generates a trade surplus of roughly $87 billion. As to that trade surplus with foreign travelers, foreign travelers stay longer, they spend more, and they like us better when they leave—virtually 100 percent of the time—than they did when they got here. Even if they thought they were going to like us a lot, they wind up liking us more. If they questioned whether they were going to like us at all, they almost always wind up on the very positive side of that question. So it is not only a huge economic benefit of $87 billion, but it is also a huge foreign policy benefit—a huge diplomatic benefit. It is just like when students come here and go to school. They have a connection to the United States that is almost always positive. It is so positive that many of them would like to stay, with that bachelor’s degree or that engineering certificate and degree, because they have liked what they found when they were here. So $87 billion is the surplus from just international travelers to the United States. But all told, travel and tourism generates nearly $2.3 trillion in annual economic input for our country. In Missouri, it has been estimated that the tourism industry, which is usually right behind agriculture in the list of our top industries, provides more than $15 billion in annual economic impact and directly supports almost 300,000 Missouri jobs. When international tourists come here and spend their money at hotels, restaurants, and shops, they are not only supporting U.S. businesses, but they are contributing to local, State, and Federal tax revenue. We have a great deal to offer when it comes to attracting these international visitors. We also have a lot of
PO 00000
Frm 00010
Fmt 0624
Sfmt 0634
things we can do as a Congress to make a difference in how people travel and where they travel. We have a role to play in promoting the United States as a travel destination and in helping our State and local tourism economies be a part of that travel. The Visa Waiver Program is sometimes questioned by some of our colleagues who say anybody can get on a plane in any of these visa waiver countries, and we particularly hear that when something bad has just happened in 1 of those 38 countries—Great Britain, France, or Germany. We hear: Anybody could come here because they don’t have to go to the U.S. Embassy and get a visa. Except that is not how it works. That is not how the Visa Waiver Program works at all now. It does enable citizens of the 38 countries that we include to travel here for tourism and business for 90 days or less without the need to obtain a specific visa. By the way, in return, Americans go to those 38 countries without having to go to the Embassy of that country and get a visa and have an interview that allows them to travel there. So that is both ways. Most importantly from our perspective, as to people who are coming here, the program has a lot of security built into it. For all the travelers who come, the Visa Waiver Program is administered by the Department of Homeland Security. It works in consultation with the State Department. Visa waivers use a risk-based, multilayered approach to detect and prevent terrorists, criminals, and other bad actors from traveling here. If you have been in some country lately that we don’t think you should have been in, if you have a history of travel back and forth to countries and we have had bad experiences with people who have been in those countries, not only do you not get a waiver but you are in for a much more extensive interview than if we were trying to interview everybody from all of those 38 visa waiver countries who wants to come to the United States. The President announced about 4 months ago that we were going to have a more extensive visa process in countries that need a visa, but that also can be a more extensive visa process in countries that have visa waivers, if someone requires more vetting. If someone does not want to submit to additional vetting, then they don’t have to come to the United States of America. Those kinds of questions are easily answered There are comprehensive vetting programs for individuals prior to the time they can get here—as well as when they get here—if they are in that visa waiver structure. So visa waiver works. I think the visa program is working now with more extensive vetting than we have had in the past. The program requires participants to have an electronic passport that has a chip in that passport that makes it virtually impossible to suggest that you
E:CRFMG08JN6.019
S08JNPT1
