AP: Feds to suspend border passport rule

By MATTHEW LEE and DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writers 6 minutes
ago

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is poised to suspend a major
post-9/11 security initiative to cope with increasingly angry complaints
from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by new passport
rules.

A proposal, expected to be announced Friday, will temporarily waive a
requirement that U.S. citizens have passports to fly to and from Canada,
Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, provided the traveler can prove he or
she has already applied for a passport, officials said Thursday.
The temporary lifting of the passport rule is aimed at clearing a
massive backlog of passport applications at the State Department that
has slowed processing to a crawl, they said. Rep. Heather Wilson (news,
bio, voting record), R-N.M., said the suspension would last until the
end of September....

Instead of a passport, travelers will now be able to present a State
Department receipt showing their passport application is being
processed, and a government-issued ID such as a driver's license.

Homeland Security signed off on the proposal on Thursday after
consultations with the State Department, the White House and members of
Congress, who have been deluged with complaints from furious
constituents, according to four officials at the agencies involved.

Rog' wrote:
By MATTHEW LEE and DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writers 6 minutes
ago

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is poised to suspend a major
post-9/11 security initiative to cope with increasingly angry
complaints from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by
new passport rules.

A proposal, expected to be announced Friday, will temporarily waive a
requirement that U.S. citizens have passports to fly to and from
Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, provided the traveler can
prove he or she has already applied for a passport, officials said
Thursday.
The temporary lifting of the passport rule is aimed at clearing a
massive backlog of passport applications at the State Department that
has slowed processing to a crawl, they said. Rep. Heather Wilson
(news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., said the suspension would last
until the end of September....

Instead of a passport, travelers will now be able to present a State
Department receipt showing their passport application is being
processed, and a government-issued ID such as a driver's license.

State Department receipt? Hardly anybody applies for a passport at the
State Department--most passport application receipts are from the US
Postal Service.

Homeland Security signed off on the proposal on Thursday after
consultations with the State Department, the White House and members
of Congress, who have been deluged with complaints from furious
constituents, according to four officials at the agencies involved.

--
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--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:16:23 -0400, J. Clarke wrote:
State Department receipt? Hardly anybody applies for a passport at the
State Department--most passport application receipts are from the US
Postal Service.

I applied for one a month ago. There's a regular receipt from the Postal
Service, but it's stapled to another sheet titled "Applying for a U.S.
Passport at an authorized Acceptance Facility". That sheet seems to be
issued by the State Department - while it doesn't say so, it does specify
that I should call the National Passport Information Center (not the Post
Office) with any questions, and gives a URL on state.gov for Internet
inquiries. It's also stamped (twice) with the date & place where I
applied. (admittedly with a USPS stamp - that *says* USPS)

Anyway, I would think this would be the document they say they're thinking
about accepting in lieu of a passport.

Condi's doing a heckuva job! Almost as good as Brownie did at FEMA!

On 6/8/2007 11:26 AM exclaimed:
Condi's doing a heckuva job! Almost as good as Brownie did at FEMA!


Somebody should hire some help for Ms Rice. I had a feeling she
couldn't possibly process all those passport applications by herself. :-D

--
________
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Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951