Today, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) announced two provisions of the Passport Act he co-authored with Senator James Lankford (R-OK) passed the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as part of the Department of State Authorization Act. The Passport Act, formally introduced earlier this week, would address a passport backlog Americans are facing.
The amendments passed out of Committee today aim to improve transparency and customer service by requiring the State Department to provide detailed status updates for passport applicants and add a customer service chat feature connecting applicants with the National Passport Information Center. After advancing from the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the bill can now head to the Senate floor.
A video of Ricketts and Lankford discussing the Committee passage is available here.
The Passport Act would address the current delays by:
- Establishing a 12-week processing time requirement and refusing any remote work requests until the timeline can be met.
- Requiring procedures to avoid processing backlogs in the case of future national emergencies.
- Developing a reserve workforce that can be reassigned to support Passport Services during high demand.
- Improving the online status tool to provide more information to applicants.
- Adding a chat feature to National Passport Information Center (NPIC) call line.
- Initiating an investigation into the quality of customer service, wait times, and technology failures of NPIC.
- Expanding in-person appointments at regional passport offices.