IV
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. RES. 390
Concerning the prohibition on the use of United States passports for travel
to Lebanon.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 22, 1996
Mr. HOKE submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on International Relations
RESOLUTION
Concerning the prohibition on the use of United States
passports for travel to Lebanon.
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution shall be known as the ‘‘Freedom of
Travel to Lebanon Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The House of Representatives finds that—
(1) on January 26, 1987, the Department of
State issued a prohibition on the use of United
States passports for travel to Lebanon, creating a
ban on travel to Lebanon by United States citizens;
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(2) the ban on travel to Lebanon was instituted
during a time of civil war, anarchy, and general law-
lessness in Lebanon, when the safety and well-being
of United States citizens were at serious risk, Amer-
ican hostages were being taken, and hundreds of
lives were being lost due to acts of terrorism;
(3) the civil war in Lebanon ended in 1990, and
the last United States hostage held in Lebanon was
freed on December 4, 1991;
(4) there has been no incident of violence
against any United States citizen in Lebanon since
December 4, 1991;
(5) the United States and Lebanon have made
special joint efforts to agree upon and sign inter-
national conventions against terrorism which would
address crimes committed against United States citi-
zens in Lebanon during the civil war;
(6) security in Lebanon has improved demon-
strably since the end of the civil war due to, among
other efforts, the exchange of security delegations
between the United States and Lebanon to monitor
ongoing progress on security;
(7) the United States maintains an economic
and military assistance program in Lebanon;
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(8) it is estimated that more than 45,000
United States citizens, including Members of Con-
gress, traveled to Lebanon in the past 4 years, either
in circumvention of the ban on travel to Lebanon
through the use of passports from countries other
than the United States by dual nationals, or under
United States regulations which permit travel in ur-
gent humanitarian cases;
(9) people in the United States of Lebanese de-
scent who have families residing in Lebanon and
who are not willing to defy the ban on travel to Leb-
anon are seriously harmed by this ban and are pre-
vented from being reunited with their loved ones in
Lebanon;
(10) the United States has eased certain re-
strictions with respect to the ban on travel to Leb-
anon to permit airline tickets to be issued for travel
directly from the United States to Beirut by nation-
als from countries other than the United States and
United States citizens who have obtained the appro-
priate waiver from the Department of State;
(11) the Lebanese Government has initiated a
10-year, $18,000,000,000 reconstruction effort, and
from 1993 through 1995 awarded more than 500
contracts worth more than $2,700,000,000 to busi-
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ness firms for development, reconstruction, and con-
sulting projects;
(12) the ban on travel to Lebanon creates a
major impediment to United States firms that wish
to bid for contracts in Lebanon;
(13) it is in the national interest of the United
States for United States businesses to participate in
the reconstruction of Lebanon, since such participa-
tion will bring economic benefit to the United States;
(14) it is in the national interest of the United
States for there to be an independent, politically and
economically self-reliant Lebanon which is a stabiliz-
ing state in the region;
(15) it is in the national interest of the United
States to assist actively the Government of Lebanon
to attain the principles of democracy in the region;
(16) travel advisories, rather than travel bans,
are in effect for travel to countries such as Bosnia,
Rwanda, Haiti, Colombia, and Peru, in which
United States citizens have historically experienced
as serious a risk to their safety as they do in travel-
ing to Lebanon; and
(17) in determining whether to restrict the use
of United States passports for travel to any country,