Pelosi backs bill tightening visa program

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that Democrats are ready to support a Republican proposal making it tougher for some foreigners to visit the country in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris.

“[It] is a bill that has bipartisan agreement and I believe will have the signature of the White House,” she told reporters in the Capitol.

In response to the deadly Paris attacks, House GOP leaders had initially pushed legislation to tighten screenings for refugees fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq. But the legislation appears to lack the support to defeat a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, and President Obama has vowed to veto it.

{mosads}The visa-waiver reforms are emerging as the substitute response that appears to have enough bipartisan support to pass through Congress easily.

Introduced Thursday by Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), the GOP bill would install new visa requirements for any foreigners who have visited Iraq, Syria, Iran or Sudan over the past five years, regardless of their country of origin. Under current law, travelers from 38 countries can obtain visa waivers to expedite visits to the U.S.

That system “really leaves our country vulnerable,” Miller said Thursday in announcing her bill.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has said the House will vote on the bill as a stand-alone measure early next week. And Pelosi on Thursday added her endorsement, saying it’s “a good bill” that “strikes a balance.”

“It was important to have a tightening of the visa waiver [system],” Pelosi said. “I’m hopeful that it will be brought up next week and that it will have all of our support.

Republicans are also floating the idea of including the visa-waiver bill as part of the year-end government spending package Congress is racing to wrap up by the Dec. 11 deadline.

The GOP’s initial version of the spending package was roundly rejected by the Democrats, in part because it included the reforms to the Syrian refugee program.

Without revealing details, the Democrats delivered their counter-offer Wednesday night. Republican appropriators are preparing their response to the counter-offer, which they intend to deliver to the Democrats as early as Thursday afternoon, according to a GOP aide.

Pelosi, for her part, said she’d prefer to see the visa-waiver bill move outside the omnibus package.

“I’m not a big supporter of doing as much policy as possible on the omnibus bill,” she said. “And I know many more people will want to vote for the visa-waiver program than will want to vote for the omnibus bill.”