TANNER TELLS STATE DEPT
OF PASSPORT FRUSTRATIONS

WASHINGTON – Congressman John Tanner has written to Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice about many Tennesseans’ frustrations getting their passports processed for foreign travel. The U.S. Passport Service, part of the Department of State, is reporting major backlog in passport processing time, which has forced many people to cancel overseas family vacations, mission trips and school trips.

Below is the text of Congressman Tanner’s June 15 letter.

Dear Secretary Rice,

I am writing this letter in regard to the excessive delays many of my constituents are experiencing in getting their passports. My office has heard countless accounts of people missing family vacations, mission trips and even their honeymoons because their passports did not arrive in time.

Constituents in my district and Americans across the country are encountering maddening delays and have been unable to get direct answers about where their passports are in the processing system. In many cases, these people have taken time off work and spent large amounts of money to plan their trips. While the implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative has put an unprecedented strain on your passport offices, it is critical that you adequately improve processing efficiency to ensure that the State Department is meeting its obligation to American citizens.

Your recent decision to allow U.S. citizens traveling to Mexico, Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean to enter and exit the United States by air with a government-issued photo identification and official proof from the State Department of application for a passport does provide some level of relief. However, there still remains a considerable backlog of requests that must be addressed. I ask that you also work as quickly as possible to process that backlog.

I appreciate your immediate attention to this matter and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

John Tanner, MC

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Contact: Randy Ford, 202.225.4714