I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7623 

To require the Secretary of State to submit a plan to eliminate the passport 

application backlog, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 16, 2020 

Mr. CONNOLLY (for himself, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mr. 

BURCHETT, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. KINZINGER, and Mr. MFUME) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of State to submit a plan to eliminate the passport application backlog, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Passport Backlog 

5 Elimination Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PLAN TO ELIMINATE PASSPORT APPLICATION 

7 BACKLOG. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 

9 date of the enactment of this Act, after consultation with 


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1 the appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary of 

2 State shall submit to such committees a plan, including 

3 the actionable strategies described in subsection (b), to en4 sure the current backlog of passport applications due to 

5 the COVID-19 pandemic is eliminated in a timely manner 

6 in order to promote the national security and economic 

7 interests of the United States. 

8 (b) ACTIONABLE STRATEGIES.—The actionable 

9 strategies described in this subsection are to— 

10 (1) eliminate the backlog of at least 1.4 million 

11 passport applications; 

12 (2) establish a timeline for the elimination of 

13 such backlog; and 

14 (3) ensure— 

15 (A) that the expected processing time 

16 for— 

17 (i) routine passport applications is be18 tween six and eight weeks; 

19 (ii) expedited passport applications is 

20 between two to three weeks; and 

21 (iii) expedited passport applications 

22 for Federal Government personnel is not 

23 more than eight business days; 

24 (B) the safety of Department of State per25 sonnel and customers and compliance with all 


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1 applicable Federal, State, and local health and 

2 social distancing guidelines; and 

3 (C) the ability for expedited service for ap4 plicants requiring a passport for purposes re5 lated to their employment. 

6 (c) IMPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 30 days after 

7 the submission of the plan under subsection (a), the Sec8 retary of State shall begin implementation of the plan to 

9 eliminate the backlog of passport applications due to the 

10 COVID-19 pandemic. 

11 (d) INSPECTOR GENERAL AUDIT.—Not later than 

12 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

13 Inspector General of the Department of State shall submit 

14 to Congress an audit on the elimination of the passport 

15 application backlog required by the plan required under 

16 subsection (a), and the Department’s actionable strategies 

17 described in subsection (b). 

18 (e) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘appro19 priate congressional committees’’ means the Committee on 

20 Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Oversight and Re21 form of the House of Representatives and the Committee 

22 on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Homeland Se23 curity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 

Æ 


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