The House voted today to extend the land and sea requirement for passports from Canada and Mexico by 17 months, following last week’s admission that the State Department was overwhelmed by demand from an earlier requirement.
Americans returning by land or sea from Mexico and Canada wouldn’t need a passport until June 1, 2009. Congress previously had phase two of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative going into effect in January 2008.
Phase one required Americans to have passports if flying into the United States from other North American countries as of January 2007. Last week, the State Department relaxed that requirement through September in response to extraordinary demand that pushed the wait for a passport from about three weeks to 12 weeks.
“Nobody can say with a straight face that the federal government is ready for this,” said U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, the Ohio Republican who introduced the amendment to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill. “My amendment simply asks the DHS to slow down and get it right this time.”
The Travel Industry Association, a Washington trade group, says it was not pushing for the extension but is in favor of giving the Departments of State and Homeland Security enough time to improve the system.
“This is Congress responding from the pressure of their constituents,” said Rick Webster, vice president of government affairs at the association. “The best lobbyists took over and moved members in this direction.”
A similar amendment was added in the Senate by Sens. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, and Ted Stevens, Alaska Republican.
“The [Bush] administration is walking blithely toward a cliff with this program, and they’re threatening to take millions of Americans with them,” Mr. Leahy said. “Their competence in being able to get this right was already in question, and when they keep insisting they’ll be ready in six months, so is their judgment.”
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