To amend and extend the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program Act of 1998.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time and also for providing for speedy consideration of this bill. The gentleman from Wisconsin takes remarkable interest in all of this legislation, has a thorough understanding of it, and I very much appreciate his interest.

I rise in strong support of the reauthorization of the Northern Ireland Peace Process and Cultural Training Program. A long time ago, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, I was given the opportunity at a tender young age to broaden my horizons and in a short 2-year period of time step out of my role in traditional American society and immerse myself into a culture that opened my eyes to a new world and new perspective on life. This experience inspired me to help create a similar program that could be applied to those living in Northern Ireland and the border counties.

As chairman of the Friends of Ireland and a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs, I have traveled annually to Ireland, both with the President and leading my own CODELs, and through these experiences have had a firsthand opportunity to watch the peace process evolve. Through these experiences, I felt a program of this nature could be applied to people on both sides of the conflict.

The program was first enacted by Congress in October of 1998 and is up for reauthorization this year. Since the program's infancy, approximately 1,000 men and women between the ages of 18 and 35 have traveled from disadvantaged areas of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the border counties bordering Northern Ireland. This program provides unemployed members from different communities, of varying educational level levels and religious backgrounds the opportunity to work in the United States for up to 2 years in our society, a society where it does not matter what religion you practice or what street you live on.

This program creates 4,000 temporary nonimmigrant working visas per year and targets men and women from these disadvantaged areas. Moving forward, we have tailored the program slightly so that it truly applies to disadvantaged people residing in areas of Northern Ireland where there are deep pockets of unemployment. This program is not intended or structured to be a work visa program for college graduates looking to gain work experience, but rather a program to give those without an education, without a job, without the skills the opportunity to gain experience and expertise and overall self-confidence before they return.

There have been several questions raised regarding the new unemployment and educational restrictions placed on the applicants. The reasoning behind limiting the program to those without a degree of higher education is to target the truly underprivileged and, more specifically, those susceptible to paramilitary recruitment.

Participants go through an 8-week predeparture training period during which time they research and secure employment in the United States prior to their arrival. As a result, they are gainfully employed before they reach the U.S. The program continues to give participants practical training experience during the time they are here as well as the opportunity to coexist and experience conflict resolution training in a diverse society. Therefore, we have changed the education requirements in order to better target those who deserve to participate in the skills-based opportunity that this program provides.

We have also placed a requirement that the participants must be unemployed for at least 6 months prior to departure to the U.S. In previous years, the requirement was 3 months. Recruiters in Dublin and Belfast ran into a problem when college-level graduates began staying purposefully unemployed for 3 months in order to qualify for the program. Therefore, the 6-month time frame creates a more extreme period in which they must be unemployed. The legislation now states that it is mandatory for the participants to return home for at least 2 years following their stay in the United States.

Politically, the island of Ireland has been relatively stable, and we are seeing positive changes unfold as the peace process continues to work. The results and return rates of the Walsh visa program have been terrific. The program will continue to support this transition by providing new potential leaders with valuable job skills and a demonstrated ability to live and work with people of diverse views.

I hope all members will join me in supporting this low-risk, high- return investment to support the continuing movement towards peace in Northern Ireland. Through programs like this, we will be able to solidify the steps toward a permanent peace.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2655, legislation reauthorizing the Walsh Visa program. This program provides U.S. work visas to young people from economically disadvantaged communities in Northern Ireland.

The City of Pittsburgh, which I have the honor of representing, is one of the hub cities for the Walsh Visa program. Consequently, I have had the opportunity to see first-hand the impressive accomplishments of this important program.

Nearly 250 young men and women, Protestant and Catholic, have participated in the Walsh Visa Program in Pittsburgh since the city was selected as a hub city for this initiative. This program promotes tolerance in Northern Ireland by bringing unemployed Protestant and Catholic youth from economically disadvantaged areas to work and live together in a vibrant multicultural community. These young people learn first-hand about the benefits of tolerance and diversity as they develop useful job skills and important work habits.

The Walsh Visa program literally transforms the lives of many of its participants, ending their dependence on government hand-outs and returning them to their communities as valuable economic assets--as well as advocates of tolerance and peaceful coexistence in their deeply divided communities. Their new work skills reinforce their status and influence in their communities, and that gives their message of tolerance and peaceful co-existence added weight.

And that brings me to the bigger picture. The Walsh Visa programs doesn't just benefit a few thousand individuals. It also benefits the hundreds of thousands of people in their communities in Northern Ireland.

When these young people go home, they take back much-needed job skills, and they serve as important role models for the other young people in their community--not just in terms of promoting religious tolerance, but also in terms of encouraging participation in the workforce in communities where unemployment has historically been depressingly high and many young people have developed an unhealthy dependency on government welfare programs.

After completing the Walsh Visa Program, one of the Pittsburgh hub participants stated that, having lived and worked in America, she would never consider being without a job again back in Belfast.

The Walsh Visa Program is administered in Pittsburgh by the Ireland Institute, a non-profit organization which has a mission to promote mutual understanding between the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland and job creation throughout all of Ireland.

More than 100 local companies have signed on in support of this program, and thousands of dollars in in-kind contributions have been received from the community. If, as I believe, widespread public support indicates the merit of a government program, then private support for the Walsh Visa Program in Pittsburgh represents a ringing endorsement of this international initiative.

Mr. Speaker, the Walsh Visa Program is helping the people of Northern Ireland move beyond the sectarian strife that has divided them for far too long. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 2655 and reauthorizing this important program.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2655) to amend and extend the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program Act of 1998, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 2655, the bill currently under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2655 would extend the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program for 2 years, from 2006 to 2008. It would also modify the provisions of the program to ensure that those aliens receiving visas are those the program was designed to benefit.

In 1998, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) guided the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program Act to enactment. The purpose of this program is to allow young adults who live in disadvantaged areas of Northern Ireland and designated border counties of the Irish Republic that are suffering from sectarian violence and high unemployment to enter the United States to develop job skills and conflict resolution abilities in a diverse, cooperative, peaceful and prosperous environment. They can then return to their homes better able to contribute toward economic regeneration and the Irish peace process.

Up to 4,000 qualifying aliens, and their spouses and minor children, can be admitted each year, and they can stay in the United States for up to 3 years. The program was set to sunset on October 1, 2005. In the 107th Congress, this program was extended until October 1, 2006.

The bill of the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh), H.R. 2655, would extend the program for another 2 years until October 1, 2008. It would also make a number of changes to the program to ensure that the aliens granted admission are truly the economically disadvantaged young adults the program was designed to help. These changes include requirements that program participants not have degrees from institutions of higher education; that they be at least 21 years of age; that they be nationals of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland; and that they have been unemployed and resident in Northern Ireland or the designated border counties for at least 6 months.

The bill would also make changes to the program to help ensure that the aliens return to Ireland to foster economic development and peace. The bill would reduce the duration of the visa term from 3 years to 2 years, and this change would discourage visa holders from remaining in the United States by reducing the amount of time they would have to establish roots here. The bill would also require that aliens admitted under this program return home for 2 years before they could apply for an immigrant visa, permanent residence, or another nonimmigrant visa.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh), who is the principal author of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. King).

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2655) to amend and extend the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program Act of 1998, with a Senate amendment thereto, and concur in the Senate amendment.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2655 would extend the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program for 2 years, from 2006 to 2008. It would also modify the provisions of the program to ensure that those aliens receiving visas are those the program was designed to benefit.

In 1998, Representative Walsh guided the Irish Peace Process Cultural and Training Program Act to enactment. The purpose of the program is to allow young adults who live in disadvantaged areas of Northern Ireland and designated border counties of Ireland that are suffering from sectarian violence and high unemployment to enter the United States to develop job skills and conflict resolution abilities in a diverse, cooperative, peaceful, and prosperous environment. They can then return to their homes better able to contribute toward economic regeneration and the Irish peace process. Up to 4,000 qualifying aliens (and their spouses and minor children) can be admitted each year and they can stay in the U.S. for up to 3 years.

Mr. Walsh's bill, H.R. 2655, would extend the program for another 2 years, until October 1, 2008. It would also make a number of changes to the program to ensure that the aliens granted admission are those truly economically disadvantaged young adults the program was designed to help. These changes include requirements that program participants not have degrees from institutions of higher education, that they be at least 21 years of age, that they be nationals of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland, that they have been unemployed for at least one year and resident in Northern Ireland or the designated border counties for at least 18 months.

The bill would also make changes to the program to help ensure that the aliens return to Ireland to foster economic development and peace. For instance, it would also require that aliens admitted under the program return home for 2 years before they could apply for an immigrant visa, permanent residence, or another nonimmigrant visa.

I urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 2655.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I am proud to rise in support of this legislation.

At the outset, Mr. Speaker, let me extend my sincerest thanks and gratitude to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) for the leadership he has shown on this issue and being in the forefront of putting forth the Walsh visas, which have done so much, not just on a very practical level of providing training and opportunity for Catholics and Protestants, Republicans and Loyalists, Nationalists and Unionists from the north of Ireland and also from the border counties on the northern border, but also for making it clear the United States retains a lasting commitment to the peace process in the north of Ireland.

Several years ago, none of us would have thought that we would see the resolution, or almost the resolution, of the centuries-old struggle that has been going on among the Irish and the British and so many of the forces on the island of Ireland. But today we have gone so far. We are approaching what I believe will be the ultimate resolution of the struggle in Northern Ireland. This legislation, providing the Walsh visas, providing economic opportunity, and letting the people in those areas know that the United States remains committed to peace and justice and to the peace process really is worth its weight in gold.

The gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) referred to this as low-risk, high-investment. That could not be more true. This is so important to the

peace process. It is so important, really, to the image of the United States around the world. It is so important to the people who have suffered for so many years on both sides of the divide, on both sides of the border, those who have lived in poverty, those who are struggling to work their way up. This is such an important symbol to them. It also has the practical effect of providing the training they need.

So, Mr. Speaker, with that, I am proud to support it, and I urge its adoption.