She has since turned that responsibility over to Senator JOHNSON. and he has also been focused on these issues. I just want to thank her for working with me on this legislation over several years. In 2010. we tried to improve the biometric standard for visa waiver countries and passed strong legislation out of the Senate. Unfortunately. it was watered down to a lesser standard. Yet it did start the efforts on more aggressive biometric travel infrastructure with our visa waiver partners. In our bill. S. 2430. we try to set up new biometric pilot projects that will work with our partners overseas and test out the best biometrics we can use. That provision was not included today. but its something we will keep working on. We know ISIS has set up operations and is continuing to focus on these visa waiver countries. as well. like the U.K. and Belgium. and we know it is active in Turkey. Giving the best technologies and tools to our partner countries and working on counterintelligence is very important. Having trained U.S. law enforcement officials working with our partner airports is important for U.S. travelers. U.S. businesses. international commerce. and for travel and the airline industry in general. The fact that customs agents can conduct interviews. capture biometrics. and conduct behavioral analysis before travelers come to the United States of America helps improve the security of our system. Customs and Border Patrol has announced they want to increase the number of these preclearance -screened travelers by a considerable percent by 2024. This will help us protect the evergrowing traveling populationand know that we are doing a better job before people reach the shores of the United States. We know with a U.S. law enforcement presence overseas that we will increase security. Customs and Border Patrol turned away nearly 10.000 people seeking admission to the United States. That is 29 people per day. I am not saying all of these people were terrorists.
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