Feds May Suspend New U.S. Border Rules To Help Ease Backup In Passport Approvals

Friday, June 8th 2007, 7:17 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Bush administration plans to suspend some of its new, post-Sept. 11 requirements for traveling abroad, hoping to placate Congress and irate summer travelers who've had their vacations thwarted by delays in processing their passports.

An announcement could come as early as Friday, according to officials and lawmakers briefed on the matter.

The proposal would temporarily lift a requirement that U.S. passports be used for air travel to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, several lawmakers said Thursday.

The suspension would allow the State Department to catch up with a massive surge in applications that has overwhelmed passport processing centers since the rule took effect this year. The resulting backlog has caused up to three-month delays for passports and ruined or delayed the travel plans of thousands of Americans.

Under the proposal, travelers would have to present a State Department receipt, showing they had applied for a passport, and government-issued identification, such as a driver's license.

Those without passports would receive additional security scrutiny, which could include extra questioning or bag checks, according to one official familiar with the discussions.

Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., said the suspension would last until the end of September.

The change would help travelers like Judy and Darrell Green, of Rifle, Colo., who are still waiting to hear whether their son-in-law's passport will arrive in time for a a family vacation to Mexico to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary and Darrell's 60th birthday.

Darrell Green's passport arrived Thursday, only after Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., helped expedite it. Their son-in-law expects to get his Friday with the help of his congresswoman.

``It makes you feel kind of frantic because you've spent all that money,'' Judy Green said.

Homeland Security signed off on the proposal Thursday after consultations with the State Department, the White House and members of Congress, who have been deluged with calls from angry constituents seeking help with their passports.

Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., whose district lies near the Canadian border, said White House officials had been on Capitol Hill trying to work out a compromise amid what he called a ``turf war'' between State and Homeland Security.

``White House personnel have seen the problem and they've been on Capitol Hill working with members,'' Reynolds said.

The department had been weighing whether the proposal would make it easier for terrorists or other undesirables to enter the country, officials involved said.

But several lawmakers had been pushing for a change for weeks.

``To say people must have a passport to travel and not give people a passport is right up there in the stupid column,'' said Wilson, who first urged the State Department to lift the rule last month.

The application surge is the result of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that since January has required U.S. citizens to use passports when entering the United States from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean by air. It is part of a broader package of immigration rules enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Between March and May, the department issued more than 4.5 million passports. It has millions more to process, according to consular affairs officials.

Wilson's office took more than 500 calls from frustrated travelers seeking help in May alone. The problem has since spread from border states to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Colorado and elsewhere.