Feds seek passport backlog help

From Elise Labott
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department has issued an urgent plea to its diplomats worldwide to help clear the backlog of 3 million passport applications.

In a cable to all Foreign Service personnel, Undersecretary for Management Henrietta H. Fore asked 100 diplomats with consular experience to "serve our citizens here at home."

"The Department of State is facing an unprecedented demand for U.S. passport services and is taking extraordinary measures to meet that demand," Fore wrote in the cable, obtained by CNN. "We need your assistance to do this and I ask that you give us your full cooperation."

The demand for passports resulted from a law enacted at the beginning of the year that for the first time required all American citizens to present a U.S. passport upon returning home by air from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or the Caribbean. The same requirement was to go into effect in January at land and sea entry points, but the State Department has pushed that back by about six months.

The department has acknowledged it grossly underestimated the number of Americans who would require a passport.

Passport offices across the country have been inundated with applicants and Fore said the department is receiving thousands more applications each day.

The State Department had already launched an unsuccessful campaign to ask American diplomats overseas to volunteer in passport offices during their summer holidays in the United States.

Now the State Department is offering to pay for travel and living expenses if the officers return for one month in July or August. Most volunteers would go to the National Passport Center in New Hampshire, while some could go to Washington.

Thousands of foreign service officers have consular experience because nearly all officers are required to do consular work at the beginning of their career. The cable also offered refresher training "to anyone who needs or wants it" and even asked for family members with secret security clearance to volunteer for duty in domestic passport offices.

Fore recognized that the loss of diplomats serving in important functions overseas could put a strain on the work of U.S. missions worldwide as the foreign service undergoes its regular summer rotation.

"We recognize, and accept, that there will be an impact on other services and activities," she wrote. "But the needs are real and we need your help now."

An additional 400 additional personnel are expected to be hired in passport offices by the end of September and the State Department expects to clear the backlog by then.

Anxious travelers got a reprieve last week when the State and Homeland Security departments announced that people with a pending passport application will be able to enter and leave the United States via air with a photo ID and a printout from the State Department's Web site proving that they have an application pending. E-mail to a friend

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