That was one of the days when the gentleman was taking up an hour on Calendar Wednesday to illuminate the House. I do not wish to abuse the privilege of the House on this occasion. Let me say to the membership of the committee that I was rather influenced in my vote in favor of the $5 fee because of the policy of foreign governments in exacting the same fee that we charge for our passports for the issuance of visas to our nationals when they go from country to country. It was called to our attention that over a period of 10 years foreign governments had protested against the- policy of exacting such a large passport fee for their immigrants coming to this country. so they retaliated. and every time an American citizen would ask their approval of a passport to go from country to country those foreign countries would exact a fee of $10. It was for the purpose of trying to counteract that influence that I favored a cut in the passport fee from $10 to $5. Now. the gentleman from New York and othersin fact. all of the proponents of this billhave seemed to lay stress upon the fact that these persons can afford to pay an increase from $5 to $9 and for a renewal of a passport an increased fee from $2 to $5.
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immigrants visas