Visa Waiver Pilot Program Reauthorization Act of 1997
Latest action. Became public lawWhat a bill becomes when enacted, numbered by Congress and order of enactment: Public Law 119-4 is the 4th law of the 119th Congress.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) No: 105-173.
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act with respect to the visa waiver pilot program to: (1) extend the program through September 30, 2000; and (2) permit program eligibility for a country whose nationals had a nonimmigrant visa refusal rate of less than three percent for the previous full fiscal year. Directs the Attorney General to implement an annual data collection and reporting program regarding nonimmigrant category overstay rates.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House amended" stage on March 25, 1998. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
This bill has been enacted. It is law.
The record's latest action, on April 27, 1998: Became Public Law No: 105-173.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
SPENCER ABRAHAM (R-MI) introduced it on September 15, 1997, and 13 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 9 Democrats, 4 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenatePassed
- HousePassed
- PresidentSigned into law