Consul General Speeches

Remarks to the American Women’s Club of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 14, 2006

Thank you for your warm welcome this morning, and for the opportunity to speak to you today as you kick off what I hope what will be another active and successful year.
I’ve been in The Netherlands for a little over a month now, and am very excited about spending the next three years here.  And I am particularly excited that the official residents of the U.S. Consul General in Amsterdam has returned to Amsterdam.  I hope this will give me a chance to participate actively in the initiatives and activities of the American Women’s Club of Amsterdam.
Some of you may know that this is not my first experience in The Netherlands.  I lived in The Hague over ten years ago when I was posted to the U.S. Embassy.  I am accompanied here by my husband, who has the great opportunity to work with a Dutch law firm, and our son, who is attending the International School of Amsterdam.  In some ways it feels very comfortable to be back in The Netherlands.  But I must admit that a great deal has changed in the decade since I was last here.  And although I lived in this country, I confess I didn’t have a lot of free time to spend in Amsterdam, so I look forward to getting to know this amazing city and all it has to offer.
Yet some things never change.  In fact, the same giraffe-shaped bouncy castle still jiggles wildly on the beach outside the apartment building where I used to live in Scheveningen.  A couple of my favorite restaurants are still going strong.  It’s still easier to bicycle than drive in most places.  And the hospitality and welcome of both the American and Dutch communities in this country are as warm as ever. 
Another thing that hasn’t changed is the commitment of the U.S. Consulate General in Amsterdam to serving the needs of American citizens residing in, and traveling to, The Netherlands.  From the earliest days of our nation, the United States has maintained a corps of consular officers with a mission that has remained essentially the same:  to protect the lives and interests of American citizens overseas, and to enhance the national security of the United States through the proper adjudication of U.S. passports and visas. 
 
I know many of you will be familiar with the range of services to American citizens that is available through the Consulate General in Amsterdam, but I thought I would run through them briefly and talk to you about a couple of issues that are new or newsworthy. 
As consular officers, we like to say that we can provide assistance to our fellow citizens across the span of an entire lifetime.  We certify the birth of new American citizens abroad, and at the other end of life’s journey, are often called upon to arrange to bring home to the U.S. the remains of an American who has died.  We deal with issues that matter to people in deeply personal ways:  citizenship, marriage, adoption, international child abduction, illness, destitution, evacuation in a crisis, and voter registration – to name just a few. 
 
Often, consular officers are called upon to go into perilous situations just as others are leaving.  We have seen this time and again over the last few years, from the enormous response to the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, to the spate of devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean and the U.S. gulf coast, to the recent violence in Lebanon and northern Israel.  In that most recent instance, we assisted approximately 15,000 Americans in departing Lebanon, and in transporting them to Cyprus or Turkey where we organized onward flights.  One of our Dutch employees at the Consulate General volunteered to assist in this effort and spent two weeks helping with the evacuation.
 
We consider it a privilege to do this work, helping American citizens and their families, sometimes during the most difficult moments of their lives. 
 
I’d like to share with you a couple of my priorities for my time at the U.S. Consulate General in Amsterdam.  First and foremost is communication.  We are undertaking a comprehensive review of the way we provide information to the public to see what we can do better, and to explore new ways of reaching out to the American community.  I am grateful for the enormous efforts that you in the American Women’s Club of Amsterdam have undertaken, as well as the efforts of my predecessor, and I hope to build on what I think is already a strong foundation.  I also know the ability to reach us by phone is an issue, and we are looking at ways to address that particular concern. 
Another aspect of our communication and outreach strategy is getting out there.  As part of my responsibilities as Consul General, I’ll be visiting provinces all over The Netherlands, and when I travel I intend to make available consular services – a sort of Consulate General Amsterdam road show – where we can register American births, provide notarial services, and answer questions.  I would invite you to provide me and my colleagues with input about how we can better communicate with you. 
And with that in mind, I’d like to tell you about a couple of developments in the consular world that might interest you. 
The Department of State began issuing our new electronic passports – or e-passports – to the public on August 14.  Currently, production is ongoing at the Colorado Passport Agency, one of 17 domestic passport facilities in the U.S. and it will be expanded to other facilities in the coming months.  The new e-passport represents the next generation of passport security and includes biometric technology.  There is a chip in the rear cover of the passport.  The chip securely stores the same data as that found on the biographic page of the passport:  name, date of birth, gender, place of birth, date of passport issuance and expiration and the passport number.  The chip also includes a digital image of the bearer’s passport photograph. 
Having the biographic data embedded inside the passport will make it far more difficult for someone else to use a passport if is lost or stolen.  At the same time, I want to assure you that in designing the new e-passport, the Department of State has gone to great lengths to protect the privacy of the information stored on the chip, and to lessen the chances of the electronic data being picked up by unauthorized readers.
In addition to being more secure than ever before, the new passport is really beautiful.  It incorporates iconic images of the United States.  If you want to check out the look of the new passport, you can see it on the State Department’s website at:  http://travel.state.gov.  I should also mention that existing passports without the chip will still be valid for the full extent of their validity period.
I don’t know how frequently you travel within the Western Hemisphere, once you have gotten TO the Western Hemisphere, but I wanted to make sure that you are aware of new requirements for travelers to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada.  U.S. legislation requires that by January 1, 2008, all travelers between the U.S. and these countries have a passport, or other secure, accepted document to enter or reenter the U.S.  This program is called the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. 
The new requirements are being phased in over time.  I’d like to tell you about an important development that has occurred within the last month or so.  On August 11, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security announced proposed regulations regarding the air and sea phases of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.  The proposed timeline is: 
On January 8, 2007, passports, merchant mariner documents or NEXUS Air cards would be required for all air travel, and most commercial sea travel, from within the Western Hemisphere for citizens of the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Bermuda.  This date is important because it has changed from the previously scheduled date of January 1, in order to accommodate holiday travel.
January 1, 2008 is the statutory deadline for all Western Hemisphere travel, including travel across land borders.  Passports or other accepted documents that denote identity and citizenship will be required for anyone crossing a land border, as well as air and sea travel.
U.S. passports will be the document of choice for American citizens entering or reentering the United States through airports and seaports.  The new proposal lists a limited number of other documents that will be acceptable.  The proposed plan for the land border implementation phase will be published separately at a later date.  In the meantime, the publishing of these proposed rules provides a mechanism for citizens to express their views.  The State Department website can show you how to do this if you are interested.
Now, on to the U.S. elections this fall.  I’d like to remind you that American citizens overseas are eligible to participate in primary, run-off and special elections, as well as the general elections in November.  I really encourage you to register to vote and request an absentee ballot if you have not already done so.  We have an official U.S. Government website for overseas absentee voting assistance at www.fvap.gov that supports the Federal Voting Assistance Program.  There’s a wealth of information available about absentee voting on this website, including a downloadable absentee ballot application, state-specific instructions for completing the form, links to state and local officials, and a downloadable emergency ballot.
And finally, I’ve mentioned the State Department’s website.  I’d like to plug travel.state.gov as a one stop shop for information on international travel, passport application procedures and all manner of American citizen’s services.  In addition, the Consulate General maintains detailed information about local procedures on our own website, which is listed on a handout I’ve brought with me today.  In an increasingly interconnected world, with occasional political unrest, threats from terrorism, and other unpredictable events, we take our responsibility to keep people informed quite seriously.  And we provide up-to-date information on conditions in countries around the world.  I urge you to consult the travel information on our website before you travel.  And I would also ask that if you have not registered with us using the convenient website link, that you consider doing so, and telling your American friends and colleagues about this service.  That way, should an emergency of any kind occur, we will be able to communicate with you more readily. 
I wish I had more time to spend to you today.  But I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak with you this morning and look forward to meeting with you in the weeks to come.