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Study says passport logjam is feds' fault

New rules brought a flood of applications, and the State Department wasn't prepared.

By WES ALLISON
Published June 19, 2007

WASHINGTON - Knowing it would be swamped with passport applications as Americans scrambled to meet new antiterrorism rules, the State Department sought money for more employees.

It built a huge new passport processing center in Arkansas. And it assured skeptical members of Congress that it was ready.

But now, as anxious travelers wait 10 to 12 weeks for their passports, congressional investigators have found that the State Department seriously underestimated the number of applications it would get during this fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

According to an internal report prepared for members of Congress and obtained Monday by the St. Petersburg Times, the State Department now believes it underestimated the number of applications by 1.5-million.

"It is obvious from the significant backlog of passport applications - and the current 10-12 week processing period - that there was a breakdown in the planning and preparation for the increased demand for passports, " the report says.

Already this year, the department has processed 10.5-million passports, a 33 percent increase over the same period last year. Applications in November exceeded projections by 250, 000, and applications for January exceeded projections by 600, 000.

Citibank, the contractor that handles the first stop in the applications process, began adding staff when the rush became apparent in November, but the backlog was soon overwhelming.

Citibank simply cashes the checks and sends the applications to the State Department. By the end of January, its normal turnaround time of 24 hours was up to four weeks, and 400, 000 applications had not been processed, the report found.

"We knew in November that the actuals were significantly ahead of the projections, " said Alvina McHale, spokeswoman for the Treasury Department's financial management service, which manages the agreement with Citibank. "But it takes 60 to 90 days to hire hundreds of additional people."

The backlog is the result of new rules, which went into effect in January, requiring U.S. citizens traveling by air to the United States from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean to have passports. More than 500, 000 applications have been in the system more than 12 weeks, about twice as long as usual, the government says.

Now several members of Congress, including Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., are calling for an investigation.

"They had two and a half years to get ready for this and they dropped the ball, " Nelson said at a news conference Monday at Tampa International Airport.

Nelson, who heads a Foreign Relations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the State Department, has scheduled a hearing on the matter for this afternoon.

Steve Royster, a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, which handles passports, said he had not seen the report and could not comment. But he blamed the backlog on sheer volume.

The new travel rules were included in security reforms passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Similar requirements for land and sea travel are to take effect in January, though Congress is considering an extension.

The congressional report says the department tried to prepare for the flood of applications that would accompany the new travel rules. Last year, it got an extra $301-million from Congress to hire 219 employees, in addition to 105 people it added in 2005.

It also opened a new processing facility in Hot Springs, Ark., and expanded regional facilities in Miami, Houston and New Orleans.

But several members of Congress say the State Department should have done more, particularly once the department noticed big increases this fall.

"By the time everybody recognized the problem, it was too late, " said Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, who sponsored a measure extending the deadline for requiring a passport for land and sea travel to June 2009. It passed the House easily last week, and the Senate is considering it.

Although the State Department eased the travel rules last week, LaTourette said that was too late, too.

"It's the first time in my career that people were missing vacations, and they seemed to be a little slow in coming to the realization, " he said. "They really made a mess out of things."

Meanwhile, Citibank nearly doubled the staff at its processing centers, cleared the backlog and has the processing time back down to 24 hours. Now, those applications are clogging the State Department.

Times staff writer Steve Huettel and Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Wes Allison can be reached at allison@sptimes.com or 202 463-0577.

Fast Facts:

Flooded

With new regulations requiring U.S. citizens to have a passport to enter the United States by air from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean, the State Department's passport division has been inundated with applications. Here's a look at the trend in passport applications by fiscal year, which runs Oct. 1 to Sept. 30:

2003: 7.3-million

2004: 8.8-million

2005: 10.1-million

2006: 12.1-million

2007: 10.5-million (through May 31)

2007, projected: 17.7-million

2008, projected: 23.13-million

Travelers who have not applied for passports should allow 10 to 12 weeks for standard processing and two to three weeks for expedited processing.

Through Sept. 30, U.S. citizens traveling to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda who have applied for but not yet received passports can enter and depart from the United States by air with a government-issued photo ID and official Department of State proof of application for a passport, such as a printout of the online status check from the department's Web site, travel.state.gov.

Americans traveling abroad must present the documents required by the country they visit.

Source: U.S. Department of State, U.S. Congress

[Last modified June 19, 2007, 03:48:17]