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Congress Fights Homeland Security Over Passport Snafu

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 18, 2007

Congress, lobbied not only by constituents but by representatives of the travel and tourism industry, wants further delays in rules that require passports for anyone entering the country.

Homeland Security officials say "no way."

The trigger for the latest tug-of-war is the ongoing State Department gridlock in processing passport application. More than a half-a-million have gone unfulfilled for more than three months – forcing the government to push back its original January deadline for air arrivals to September 30.

Another January deadline, set for 2008, requires passports for all arrivals, including those coming by land or sea, and wipes out old rules that allowed passengers from Bermuda, Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean to get by with just a driver’s license or other government-issued ID.

The problem, according to the Homeland Security Department, is that thousands of different forms of photo identification were issued – especially in states that did not require photographs on driver’s licenses.

Using just a passport to approve entry would make life much easier for border control officers, the department says.

Passport regulations for friendly, nearby nations were first suggested in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks but not imposed until the beginning of this year. While officials are understandably anxious to avoid entry by potential terrorists, they also must cater to tourism interests.

Several U.S. senators are outspoken advocates of delaying the mandatory passport rules another year-and-a-half, pushing the deadline back from January 2008 until June 2009.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens said retention of the January deadline would harm his state, which is not part of the contiguous 48 states, while Vermont’s Patrick Leahy said failure to extend the deadline would cause a "train wreck" for the travel industry.

According to the American Automobile Association, only 27 per cent of Americans had passports when the rule mandating passports for air arrivals took effect in January.

Suddenly concerned about long-planned summer vacations, citizens seeking passports swamped the State Department with applications. Even those paying an extra $60 surcharge for fast service, on top of the normal $97 passport fee, were caught in the paper avalanche.

The State Department has since offered to give refunds to anyone who paid the $60 for fast service they did not receive.

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