Passport Backlog Elimination Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 7623 To require the Secretary of State to submit a plan to eliminate the passport application backlog, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 16, 2020 Mr. CONNOLLY (for himself, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mr. BURCHETT, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. KINZINGER, and Mr. MFUME) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Af- fairs A BILL To require the Secretary of State to submit a plan to elimi- nate the passport application backlog, and for other pur- poses. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Passport Backlog 4 Elimination Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. PLAN TO ELIMINATE PASSPORT APPLICATION 6 BACKLOG. 7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 8 date of the enactment of this Act, after consultation with 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:54 Aug 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7623.IH H7623 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 7623 IH the appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary of 1 State shall submit to such committees a plan, including 2 the actionable strategies described in subsection (b), to en- 3 sure the current backlog of passport applications due to 4 the COVID-19 pandemic is eliminated in a timely manner 5 in order to promote the national security and economic 6 interests of the United States. 7 (b) ACTIONABLE STRATEGIES.—The actionable 8 strategies described in this subsection are to— 9 (1) eliminate the backlog of at least 1.4 million 10 passport applications; 11 (2) establish a timeline for the elimination of 12 such backlog; and 13 (3) ensure— 14 (A) that the expected processing time 15 for— 16 (i) routine passport applications is be- 17 tween six and eight weeks; 18 (ii) expedited passport applications is 19 between two to three weeks; and 20 (iii) expedited passport applications 21 for Federal Government personnel is not 22 more than eight business days; 23 (B) the safety of Department of State per- 24 sonnel and customers and compliance with all 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:54 Aug 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7623.IH H7623 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 7623 IH applicable Federal, State, and local health and 1 social distancing guidelines; and 2 (C) the ability for expedited service for ap- 3 plicants requiring a passport for purposes re- 4 lated to their employment. 5 (c) IMPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 30 days after 6 the submission of the plan under subsection (a), the Sec- 7 retary of State shall begin implementation of the plan to 8 eliminate the backlog of passport applications due to the 9 COVID-19 pandemic. 10 (d) INSPECTOR GENERAL AUDIT.—Not later than 11 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 12 Inspector General of the Department of State shall submit 13 to Congress an audit on the elimination of the passport 14 application backlog required by the plan required under 15 subsection (a), and the Department’s actionable strategies 16 described in subsection (b). 17 (e) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘appro- 18 priate congressional committees’’ means the Committee on 19 Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Oversight and Re- 20 form of the House of Representatives and the Committee 21 on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Homeland Se- 22 curity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 23 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:54 Aug 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H7623.IH H7623 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS