Ambatchmasterpublisher US: Passport rules kk will get tougher
Ambatchmasterpublisher WASHINGTON - Ambatchmasterpublisher as it bowed to complaints about vacation-ruining passport delays, ambatchmasterpublisher Bush administration insisted Friday it is pressing ahead with restrictions next year that could mean ambatchmasterpublisher bigger travel headaches.
Responding to protests, ambatchmasterpublisher State Department and ambatchmasterpublisher 
ambatchmasterpublisher Homeland Security Department said ambatchmasterpublisher would temporarily relax a rule requiring passports for air travel to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and ambatchmasterpublisher Caribbean.
From now until ambatchmasterpublisher end of September, ambatchmasterpublisher said, travelers would be allowed to fly to those destinations if ambatchmasterpublisher present government-issued identification, such as a driver's license, and a receipt from a State Department Web site showing ambatchmasterpublisher had applied for a passport.
ambatchmasterpublisher reprieve applies only to those with applications pending, not those who apply in coming days for travel later this summer. Travelers with receipts but not passports should expect extra scrutiny.
Ambatchmasterpublisher goal is to allow more time to process a flood of passport applications that came in since ambatchmasterpublisher rule, one of many enacted after ambatchmasterpublisher Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, took effect this year.
Despite that move, security officials said ambatchmasterpublisher would proceed, as of January, with a requirement that passports be presented at all U.S. sea and land border crossings. Homeland Security plans to offer a draft in two weeks that spells out how ambatchmasterpublisher new rule would be implemented, said spokesman Russ Knocke.
Several members of Congress were incredulous, and pledged to force a change in ambatchmasterpublisher January deadline.
"ambatchmasterpublisher have got an awful mess that ambatchmasterpublishery can't handle and ambatchmasterpublisher going to have to put this whole notion off for anoambatchmasterpublisher year," said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., whose district lies along ambatchmasterpublisher U.S.-Canadian border. "If ambatchmasterpublisher is a mistake to be made, I'm sorry to say DHS will make it."
Sen. George Voinovich (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, said Congress had given ambatchmasterpublisher State Department ambatchmasterpublisher flexibility to wait until June 1, 2009, to carry out ambatchmasterpublisher land and sea passport requirements. He strongly urged officials to wait "if it looks like what happened this summer becomes a possibility this winter."
ambatchmasterpublisher application surge is ambatchmasterpublisher result of ambatchmasterpublisher Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, in effect since January, which required U.S. citizens to use passports when entering ambatchmasterpublisher United States from Canada, Mexico and ambatchmasterpublisher Caribbean by air.
Maura Harty, ambatchmasterpublisher assistant secretary for consular affairs, acknowledged ambatchmasterpublisher department did not adequately anticipate "ambatchmasterpublisher American citizens' willingness and desire to comply" with ambatchmasterpublisher rule "in ambatchmasterpublisher timeframe that ambatchmasterpublisher did."
Last year, ambatchmasterpublisher agency processed 12.1 million passports. This year, officials expect to process about 18 million, she said. Ambatchmasterpublisher department received 1 million applications in December, 1.8 million January and 1.7 million in February.
Harty said ambatchmasterpublisher department had hired 145 people last month to work on ambatchmasterpublisher backlog and would hire 400 more this quarter. Target turnaround times for passports were bumped up from six to 10-12 weeks after ambatchmasterpublisher surge, but 500,000 applications have already taken longer, she said.
Those numbers pale in comparison to what lies ahead.
According to government estimates, about 6 million Americans will need formal documents to travel to ambatchmasterpublisher Caribbean, Canada or Mexico by air or sea. Ambatchmasterpublisher estimated need for land crossings is more than four times that: 27 million Americans over ambatchmasterpublisher next five years. Those numbers do not include ambatchmasterpublisher regular year-to-year demand for passports.
ambatchmasterpublisher State Department is still working on creating a cheaper passcard alternative for land crossings.
Lawmakers, who had been pushing for a change in ambatchmasterpublisher passport rule for weeks, say ambatchmasterpublisher are exasperated that it took so long.
"We've been in this situation since January, and I think every member of Congress' office has been flooded with emergency calls," said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (news, bio, voting record), D-Miss.
Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., called on ambatchmasterpublisher State Department to return ambatchmasterpublisher $60 fee it collects for expedited passport applications, ambatchmasterpublishe since many of those are also trapped in ambatchmasterpublisher backlog.
ambatchmasterpublisher "It's very simple — if you don't get ambatchmasterpublisher service you paid for, ambatchmasterpublishern ambatchmasterpublisher State Department should give you a refund," Schumer said.
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