Travel Promotion, Enhancement, and Modernization Act of 2014

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4450) to extend the Travel Promotion Act of 2009, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on this bill, and I would like to include an exchange of letters between the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Homeland Security.

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

Today, I rise in support of H.R. 4450, the Travel Promotion, Enhancement, and Modernization Act, which was reported out of the subcommittee I chair, Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, on July 9, 22-0. H.R. 4450 then sailed through the full Committee on Energy and Commerce on July 15 by voice vote.

I thank Congressman Bilirakis for his hard work, not only in crafting a very smart bill with the appropriate reforms, but also gaining strong bipartisan support along the way. And I also thank his cosponsor, Mr. Welch of Vermont, for being the lead Democratic sponsor.

The Travel Promotion Act matches $100 million in fees from foreign travelers with $100 million in voluntary contributions from the industry to invest in advertising abroad. In 2013 alone, Brand USA generated 1.1 million visitors to the United States, who spent $3.4 billion and supported 53,181 U.S. jobs.

Now, we always think of Orlando, California, Miami, Disneyland, Hollywood, and Disney World as the tourist spots that are known worldwide, but thanks to the TPA and Brand USA, travel agents from abroad can educate their clients on popular attractions in America's heartland, not just New York City or Los Angeles. Nebraska alone has seen $4.4 billion spent and 44,275 jobs supported throughout the life of Brand USA.

With H.R. 4450, we increase accountability, as well as transparency requirements and performance metrics to ensure Brand USA is run efficiently. I am also pleased that the legislation makes contributions to Brand USA voluntary, rather than compulsory.

Conservative publications, such as RedState and Human Events have picked up on these changes and recognize these reforms as critical to the success of the Travel Promotion Act.

I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis) and the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Welch) for their hard work in drafting H.R. 4450 and for gathering enough supporters that we can pass this legislation under suspension of the rules.

I was fortunate to be able to report the bill out of my subcommittee, so that our committee can continue to benefit from Brand USA, and I encourage a ``yea'' vote from all of the Members on both sides of the aisle.

I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Homeland Security,

Washington, DC, July 16, 2014.

Hon. Fred Upton,

Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Rayburn House

Office Building, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Upton: I write to you regarding H.R. 4450,

the Travel Promotion, Enhancement, and Modernization Act of

2014, which was ordered reported by the Committee on Energy

and Commerce on July 15, 2014. I wanted to notify you that

the Committee on Homeland Security will forgo action on the

bill so that it may proceed expeditiously to the House floor

for consideration.

This is being done with the understanding that the

Committee on Homeland Security is not waiving any of its

jurisdiction, and the Committee will not be prejudiced with

respect to the appointment of conferees or its jurisdictional

prerogatives on this or similar legislation.

I would appreciate your response to this letter, confirming

this understanding, and ask that a copy of our exchange of

letters on this matter be included in the report accompanying

H.R. 4450 and in the Congressional Record during

consideration of H.R. 4450 on the House floor.

Sincerely,

Michael T. McCaul,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), the full committee chair.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), the author and chief negotiator of this bill, who worked in a very bipartisan way and allowed the bill to come out of our committee unanimously.

At this time, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from southern Florida (Mr. Jolly).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Gardner).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

I want to thank Jan Schakowsky, the ranking member, for her great work on this bill. She and I understand and have worked together in a very bipartisan way to try and encourage more foreign investment in the United States.

That builds our economy and helps to create jobs when you bring money from outside the United States in. We had a bill that passed earlier, overwhelmingly in this House, that is sitting over in the Senate, to do a study to figure out what the barriers are to direct foreign investment in the United States.

This is the easy lift here. This is providing visas to people from all around the world that want to come spend some time in the United States because they want to go to the Windy City on the big Ferris wheel on the pier or to one of our great amusement parks or to Colorado skiing. We attract people from all over the world. We have to encourage them.

There is a worldwide competition for the tourism dollar, and we need to make sure that the United States is competitive, and Brand USA is that program that promotes the United States, so that the tourists come here, whether it is from Brazil to go shopping in the Miami area--which is very popular--or whatever they want to do as their destination.

When they decide to make that trip, they get a visitor's visa, and they pay a fee for that visa. The interesting part is when some of that money is then invested in Brand USA through this act, over that period of the year, there is actually more dollars that go towards budget or deficit reduction than are used for the processing and for Brand USA, so it actually reduces our deficit. Who wouldn't want that?

It is also the point that it creates jobs, and I think of this bill more as a jobs bill. 53,000 jobs per year are supported because of Brand USA and foreign visitors to the United States--1.1

million visitors directly from Brand USA.

I would like to see us do 2 million next year, but we are only going to do that if there is a way to get the word out around the world that we want visitors to the United States, so this is a great bill.

Gus Bilirakis, the gentleman from Florida that worked this bill, resolved all of the major issues. He negotiated, and this is now a voluntary program on the business side, not compulsory.

I don't think there are any real issues here, any barriers or bumps here, so I think we should have a unanimous vote on this. Therefore, I encourage all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote ``yea'' on this great pro-U.S.A. bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

As the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, I am pleased that this bipartisan bill, H.R. 4450, the Travel Promotion, Enhancement, and Modernization Act of 2014, was reported out of the full Energy and Commerce Committee last week.

The bill, which authorizes the Brand USA program through fiscal year 2020, is an important achievement for our committee. I appreciate the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Terry), the chairman of our committee and subcommittee, and the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman), the full committee ranking member, for helping to bring this legislation to the floor.

I strongly support Brand USA's mission of promoting international travel to the United States, and I have heard from travel and tourism professionals across my district about the need to reauthorize this program, but it is not just the Chicago area that benefits.

Brand USA supports an estimated 53,000 jobs and $3.4 billion in visitor spending each year from coast to coast,

according to the U.S. Travel Association.

I would like to thank Mr. Bilirakis and Mr. Welch, the sponsors of H.R. 4450, for their continued commitment to the promotion of international tourism. The sponsors worked with me to make some important improvements to this legislation during the committee markup process.

The amendment we made to the bill will make Brand USA even more accountable and economically viable, moving forward.

Due to our efforts, the bill incorporates several recommendations that the Government Accountability Office made in a 2013 report. The Department of Commerce is now required to establish specific publicly available timeframes and conditions for how Brand USA revises and resolves disagreements related to its in-kind contribution policy.

Having a set policy will not only promote greater transparency, but it will also, in the words of GAO, ``enable productive interactions and facilitate collaboration.''

GAO has also suggested that Brand USA be directed to develop a plan that specifies timeframes, methodologies, and data sources for measuring its performance and the campaign's impact.

By explicitly requiring those criteria, the bill now gives the organization more direction on the type of information it should collect and establishes metrics that can more effectively determine the success of the program.

I was glad that the bill's sponsors proposed lowering the cap on in- kind contributions in the underlying bill, and I am thankful that Mr. Bilirakis joined me to offer an amendment to lower the cap even further during the full committee markup last week.

Every contribution to Brand USA, whether public or private, cash or in-kind, is important to the organization's ongoing success, but I believe that the program is in the best possible position to maintain and build on its success through robust cash contributions by the private sector.

Brand USA's continued long-term success is essential to communities that--like my district--realize the economic and cultural benefits of tourism and travel. Brand USA has been successful in its first few years, and I firmly believe that this legislation improves the program even more.

Again, I applaud Brand USA for its ongoing efforts to encourage people from all over the world to enjoy everything our country has to offer, and I assure the chairman of our subcommittee that we will benefit not just coast to coast, but also the center of the country as well.

I thank the sponsors for their continued efforts to ensure the longevity of this valuable program and strongly encourage my colleagues to support this important bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Nevada, Dina Titus, from a place that certainly benefits from tourism and is a place where many of us go to have fun.

It is now my pleasure to yield for such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), who is from a beautiful area of the country.

Mr. Speaker, can I ask how many minutes remain on either side?

I have no more speakers, but I want to just make a couple of comments. I think in addition to this being a really important bill and recognized in a bipartisan way, I hope Members on both sides of the aisle will realize how good it feels when we work together, and maybe this could be the beginning or a model for how we can deal with legislation. There were some changes to the bill. We sat down. We agreed on them. We worked it out, and we have a product at the end of the day. It is called compromise. It is not a dirty word. We have achieved, I think, an excellent product.

The other thing I wanted to mention, we have talked about Big Sur, Carmel, Las Vegas, and other places. I just wanted to say that I am kind of pushing an idea for an organization called To Chicago, which is our tourism bureau to bring people to Chicago, especially for the summer. I thought a really good idea would be to promote: Come to Chicago, swim in Chicago, no sharks. And so I thought I would use this opportunity to push my ``no sharks'' idea for Chicago. You could add ``no salt'' as well, but I thought particularly ``no sharks.'' We have beautiful beaches in Chicago. So I am trying to get To Chicago under the banner of brand Chicago to promote my good idea of no sharks.

But there are so many ideas I think that we have for many small communities. I was in the delta of Louisiana at the original blues bars and blues restaurants down there, and all of us have something wonderful and unique in our communities. That is what Brand USA is about, to bring tourists not only to the likely suspects of places but to so many of our communities so they get the real flavor of the people, the diversity, the color, the smell, the feel, and the sound of the United States of America. So this is a great piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I will close by just thanking the gentleman--all of the gentlemen--and ladies who have participated in making this important legislation come to fruition.

I do hope we are able to move it very quickly and, hopefully, unanimously here, move it over to the Senate and get it done right away. I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill to extend the Brand USA program and ensure it is successful, accountable, and transparent going forward.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you very much for yielding. Thank you for your leadership on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill for many reasons. The first reason is that America needs to market itself. You think that, oh, everybody loves America, but I found in my travels in talking with people that not everybody has the same opinion about America. Right now, if you turn on your television, the rest of the world is trying to get people who live in this country to go travel to their country--go to Spain; go to the Caribbean; go to New Zealand; go everywhere; go to Canada. It is all trying to get our people to be tourists in their country.

Well, finally, we did something about it. We have been doing this in agriculture for a long time. With the Agricultural Marketing Act, we decided, well, let's market America. Let's tell people what this great country is, how you can get here, and what you are going to see when you get here. It has had a tremendous effect. It really has. It, to me, is the biggest jump-starter for jobs that we can do because tourism is everywhere. It is all those things. It is little restaurants. It is museums. It is essentially Washington, D.C., from parks to rivers to everything. That is what America is made of.

There is also, I think, in this hot world right now, this complicated world--the news is full of bad stuff, and, unfortunately, America, because of all our movies and television, also has an opinion of people this is the most dangerous country in the world to visit. We have got to get over that, because everybody who comes here finds that it is not true at all. It is very friendly people and wonderful help. So it is very important. It is kind of foreign policy to say: Come on, come see this great country, this little pillar of the world, and meet the people.

Next year, we are going to have the 100th anniversary of our National Park System. We are the only country in the world that has a national park system like this one. They are the most beautiful places in America.

I would suggest that, frankly, this is a great, bipartisan product. Mr. Bilirakis and I have been cochairs of this Tourism Caucus. We have been trying to get every Member to join. It was interesting; we got more Democrats to join the caucus than Republicans. And hopefully now with this bill and this sort of discussion of how important this is to your local districts, and there is isn't a chamber of commerce in the United States that isn't watching this vote and hoping that we will pass this bill because those tourists, just like politics, all of it is local. All tourism is local. They go to some community, and they go to the main street and they help the small businesses.

I represent a pretty remote area of California called Big Sur, a beautiful coastline. The foreign tourists are carrying the economy of that area by their visits. The Europeans are visiting it in greater numbers than ever before. If you talk to any of the merchants, they will say, but for that European travel after the recession we have had, we wouldn't be recovering like it is.

So I want every Member of Congress to join our caucus because what do we do? Caucuses produce things. We produced this reauthorization, a bill, and Mr. Bilirakis as cochair carried it, and he has done a tremendous job. It is important that we focus for a moment on the importance of tourism as an industry just like steel, electronics, and airlines, but it is made up of all these other parts. That industry is in every single congressional district. If this is the tide that lifts the ships that bring the tourists here, it is also the tide that will help leave that tourist tax dollar, that tourist expenditure dollar in our local community and hire people to be a service-oriented industry.

So I applaud our colleagues in Congress for reauthorizing. We have done this before without controversy because it is a pay-for. It is already paid for. It is not a tax. It is a fee that is levied on tourists coming to this country to get a visa, and a portion of that fee then goes into paying for this promotion. So it is a win-win. It is a job promotion, and it is good for everybody. I hope we get a unanimous vote on both sides of the aisle, and I hope those that vote for it will also join the Tourism Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, as co-chair of the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus, I am pleased to see the House of Representatives take up the Travel Promotion, Enhancement, and Modernization Act of 2014 today. I want to thank my caucus co-chair, Rep. Gus Bilirakis, for introducing this legislation to reauthorize Brand USA--our nation's Destination Marketing Organization or DMO.

This legislation will allow our country to continue its success in the international travel and tourism market, bringing greater numbers of international visitors to our shores. These travelers provide a substantial boost to our economy and produce many U.S. jobs. Did you know that international visitors coming to the United States are measured as an export? They are, and travel and tourism is the top export industry. Number One! Seventy million international visitors, spending over $180 billion, have produced a trade surplus every year since 1989--and Brand USA is a crucial part of this. Brand USA's most recent annual report showed that FY13 saw an increase of 1.1 million visitors. That increase brings an additional $3.4 billion in spending to our economy and supports over 50,000 new jobs.

International visitors are drawn to America's well known destinations like New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, and Chicago. And yet, it is our ``amber waves of grain'' and ``purple mountain majesties'' that attract travelers to all corners of our country. Our scenery sells us to the world and the upcoming 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service will highlight some of our most notable scenery.

Brand USA's efforts bring substantial benefits to our economy with a return on investment of more than 30 to 1. If only my investments did this well. This unbeatable value is done at no U.S. taxpayer expense. Funding for this program is provided by the international visitors who come to the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I like to point out that travel and tourism is in every state, every territory, and congressional district across this country, and I encourage all my colleagues to join Rep. Bilirakis and myself in supporting America's travel and tourism industry by voting aye for this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4450, the ``Travel Promotion, Enhancement, and Modernization Act of 2014.''

I am pleased that the Energy and Commerce Committee made important enhancements to H.R. 4450 during its recent markup, significantly improving the bill before us today.

Specifically, H.R. 4450 now includes a provision to enhance accountability of the program by requiring Brand USA to establish performance metrics to assess the effectiveness of its marketing efforts; whether increases in visitors are due to Brand USA's efforts or outside factors; and any cost or benefit to the U.S. economy.

It also includes a provision requiring the Secretary of Commerce to establish formal procedures for revising the policy governing in-kind contributions or resolving disputes about the value of in-kind contributions with Brand USA.

These provisions are responsive to findings in a July 2013 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report entitled ``Brand USA Needs Plans for Measuring Performance and Updated Policy on Private Sector Contributions.''

Given my strong desire to stimulate new tourism to the United States, I requested GAO to examine the effectiveness of Brand USA so that Congress could be informed as to whether the corporation was positioned to achieve its mission.

In that report, GAO concluded that Brand USA has taken some steps to measure its performance but has not yet developed a plan to monitor and evaluate whether its efforts are increasing travel to, and travelers' spending in, the U.S.

GAO also found that there were possible problems with current valuation methodologies for in-kind contributions and cited disputes between the Commerce Department and Brand USA about whether certain types of in-kind contributions are allowed under the law.

For the Federal government's part, the resources that are provided to Brand USA are derived from a fee assessed to foreign travelers that Customs and Border Protection collects. Given the well-documented resource challenges within CBP, I have no doubt that CBP would welcome the opportunity to retain more of these funds for its own traveler facilitation programs and operations but, as a policy matter, Congress has said it must go to this corporation to advertise and promote travel to the U.S.

For its part, it falls to Brand USA to show us that we made the right call by delivering data showing how the ad campaigns and media efforts undertaken by this corporation have impacted travel and the overall economy.

The bill being considered today will help ensure Brand USA addresses deficiencies found by the GAO and utilizes its funding in the most effective and efficient manner possible, as we extend authorization for the program through 2020.

Because of these improvements to the bill, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4450, the Travel Promotion, Enhancement, and Modernization Act of 2014.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his good work on this bill, as well as his leadership on this very important subcommittee, and I appreciate it very much.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4450, the Travel Promotion, Enhancement, and Modernization Act, which would reauthorize Brand USA for a limited time, adds numerous accountability measures and strengthens the transparency of the

public-private partnership that promotes increased tourism to the United States.

Passage of H.R. 4450 will be good for the economy. It is a jobs bill, Mr. Speaker. A recent analysis performed by the independent firm Oxford Economics estimated that, in fiscal year 2013, Brand USA generated 1.1 million additional international visitors who spent an estimated $3.4 billion, generating economic revenue and supporting job creation in communities across America.

Brand USA does not impose a cost upon the Federal Government. It has helped to reduce the deficit during the last 2 fiscal years and is expected to continue to do so. In fact, the respected and nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that H.R. 4450 will reduce the deficit by $231 million over 10 years. It is a win-win, Mr. Speaker.

It is important to note that Federal taxpayer dollars are not used to fund Brand USA. Brand USA is supported by international visitors and voluntary private sector contributors.

After it receives contribution from the private sector, Brand USA can only collect up to $100 million in matching funds from fees paid by foreign travelers. Amounts collected in excess of that cap are returned to the Treasury for deficit reduction.

Finally, given the benefits to the economy across State lines, as well as the competitive nature of foreign competitors in travel promotion, Congress is well within its authority under the Commerce Clause to extend the Travel Promotion Act. Small State and local tourism offices and local small businesses across America are some of the strongest supporters of the Travel Promotion Act and benefit greatly from international tourism. Brand USA helps bridge these communities and opens up new markets to American competition.

I appreciate consideration of this legislation, which several commentators have noted includes important reforms. This bill improves an already existing partnership, Mr. Speaker.

I thank Chairman Upton for his leadership, again, the subcommittee chair, Chairman Terry, doing an outstanding job, all those who have contributed to this bill, our lead cosponsor, Mr. Peter Welch, and the cochair of the Tourism Caucus, Mr. Farr--who I believe will speak in a few minutes--for their work on this legislation, and also the ranking member of the subcommittee, Ms. Schakowsky. I urge support of this prudent and narrow reauthorization of the Travel Promotion Act.