Congress has been questioning the State Department about a huge backlog in processing of passport requests, since it became known that they would be required for Americans attempting to re-enter the country by air.
Some sixteen million people have filed paperwork for passports; the number was higher than anticipated and the State Department didn't have enough resources available to help with the increased workload. They also came close to running out of passports.
Some in Congress were urging the new requirements be delayed until the backlog was dealt with; Homeland Security objected. It's actually a stupid debate.
The problem on 9/11 was not Americans attempting to return to the U.S. from Mexico or Canada by air. It was foreign nationals on Visas who carried out the 9/11 attacks. Not one of them was American.
They should straighten out the Visa mess first. Then they need to deal with the other major threat--the unsecured southern U.S. border, where illegals come in whenever they want.
Until the rest of the picture gets straightened out, it seems kind of a waste of time to deal with the passport issue. Forget about delaying the new passport rules until September, delay it even longer. They need to get this right.
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