Neil pointed out just the other day how the state department and the passport process are in a HUGE mess over new rules requiring everyone who leaves the country now to have a passport. In all honesty, it’s probably a good thing that more Americans will have passports. That might up the impetus, if even just a little, for more Americans to travel, something that is sorely needed if we are to continue to project our power and influence around the world. But dealing with the passport agency is a lot like the Post Office or the DMV: slow and painful. And as Neil wrote, the snafu on getting passports on time has wreaked much havoc around the country.
Well, there is a bit of a reprieve in sight. Not much, but a little.
Until the end of September, travelers will be allowed to fly without passports if they present printed out State Department receipts showing they had applied for passports and government-issued identification, like a driver’s license. But what about people who haven’t already applied for a passport? It doesn’t seem to say. Which is lame. They ought to just put things back the way they were for a few months until they get the whole mess sorted out. Oh, and the rule and the suspension do not affect Americans crossing into Canada or Mexico or taking cruises.
The suspension should allow the State Department to catch up with a massive surge in applications that has overwhelmed passport centers since the rule took effect this year, but then again, who knows. It’s the State Department, after all.