A Congressional panel ordered an inquiry into the new visa adjudication policy which apparently led to an increase in the rate of visa denials to foreign students and scholars engaged in scientific research or studies.

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science has asked the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative branch of Congress, to look into the visa approval procedures and policies that have been adopted since the September 11th terrorist attacks.

The issue came up at a hearing of the committee on March 26, during which two academicians complained about the backlog of visas for foreign students and scholars, and problems with a new tracking system for foreign students which, they said, were hampering work at U.S. universities and potentially harming U.S. security.

Princeton University President Dr. Shirley Tilghman and American Council on Education president Dr. David Ward focused on issues related to foreign students and scholars in science, mathematics and engineering, particularly graduate students.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services at the State Department, Janis Jacobs, who was present at the hearing, acknowledged the problems and said they were in the process of being sorted out.

Committee chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and ranking Democrat Ralph Hall (D-TX) released the letter they sent to the GAO, requesting better data on the extent and nature of the visa backlog.

Some members, including Rep. Hall and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Nick Smith (R-Mich.) and Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), raised questiions about why the United States was so dependent on foreign students.

Boehlert, however, said, “the reason for concern is that unnecessarily impeding the flow of students and scholars in and of itself can erode our national security.”

The hearing also focused on the new tracking system for foreign students, known as the Student Exchange and Visitor Information Service (SEVIS).

SEVIS has been plagued with technological problems including lost information, delays in processing simple forms, and personal information being sent to unintended places.

Dr. Ward warned that the visa backlog could have a ripple effect throughout the economy as the nearly 583,000 international students spend an estimated $12 billion per year in the United States.

Earlier, Frank Pallone (D-NJ), co-founder of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, wrote to Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking the Justice Department to work with the universities to alleviate the problems faced by foreign students immediately.

“The need for heightened vigilance and security in the face of terrorist attacks our nation has experienced is a necessity,” Pallone said in a letter to Ashcroft on March 25. “However, we must remain equally concerned that students from abroad are able to attend American universities. Foreign students are not synonymous with terrorism, and we must put an end to current tracking malfunctions that are incorrectly targeting foreign students.”

Pallone said that foreign scientists and scholars are critically important to the nation’s science and technology research. “Not only do the problems with the current system alienate and harm foreign students in the United States, they most certainly serve to deter foreign students from coming to the United States at all,” Pallone said. “My home state of New Jersey has benefited enormously from the presence of students that have come from India to further their studies in areas such as information technology, mathematics, science and medicine. Indeed, Silicon Valley today would be a much different place were it not for the collaborative efforts of Indian students and American universities.”