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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6610 Engrossed in House (EH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6610

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

 
To provide for the modernization of the passport issuance process, and 
                          for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE AND TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Passport System 
Reform and Backlog Prevention Act''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as 
follows:

Sec. 1. Short title and table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Sense of Congress.
Sec. 4. Standards for passport issuance process.
Sec. 5. Enhanced information technology solutions to improve the 
                            passport issuance process.
Sec. 6. Research on commercially available information technology 
                            solutions.
Sec. 7. GAO Report.
Sec. 8. Rule of construction.
Sec. 9. Definitions.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States 
        experienced a major backlog of passport applications and 
        passport processing wait times of up to 13 weeks, exclusive of 
        shipping times.
            (2) Over the past several years, the Department has 
        experienced repeated delays in its attempts to modernize the 
        passport issuance process.
            (3) The adoption of additional commercially available 
        information technology solutions at several stages of the 
        passport issuance process could greatly enhance and accelerate 
        such process.
            (4) The United States passport is a widely recognized and 
        trusted identity and travel document that is of tremendous 
        importance to its bearer around the globe.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) as a routine matter, an adult who has submitted a 
        routine new or renewal passport application should be reliably 
        able to expect that such application will be adjudicated by the 
        Department, at a reasonable cost, in a time frame which is 
        conducive to international travel;
            (2) the Department should seek to further modernize and 
        streamline the passport issuance process to enable a decrease 
        in processing times below pre-pandemic levels of six-to-eight 
        weeks, specifically for routine adult passport renewals with 
        respect to which the Department should seek to decrease average 
        processing times to less than 30 days; and
            (3) the Department should take all reasonable steps, 
        including the use of available technology and best practices, 
        to protect the integrity of the passport issuance process, the 
        privacy of passport holders, and the efficiency of processing 
        passport issuance requests.

SEC. 4. STANDARDS FOR PASSPORT ISSUANCE PROCESS.

    In administering and modernizing the passport issuance process, the 
Assistant Secretary shall evaluate the performance of such process 
against the following criteria:
            (1) To maintain a service standard of processing a routine 
        new or renewal adult passport application from document 
        submission until mailing of final documents in an expeditious 
        and reliable timeframe.
            (2) To maintain affordable passport fees and surcharges.
            (3) To ensure world-class technical, security, and 
        cybersecurity standards for United States passports and the 
        passport issuance process.
            (4) To minimize downtime for the Travel Document Issuance 
        System.
            (5) To minimize the suspense rate resulting from 
        typographical, clerical, or picture-based errors, including by 
        enabling such suspensions to be resolved electronically.
            (6) To provide a streamlined customer experience for 
        passport applicants.
            (7) To provide reasonably convenient passport services to 
        United States citizens and nationals living a significant 
        distance from a passport agency, particularly residents in a 
        significant population center more than a 5-hour drive from a 
        passport agency.

SEC. 5. ENHANCED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE 
              PASSPORT ISSUANCE PROCESS.

    (a) In General.--The Assistant Secretary, in consultation with the 
Chief Information Officer, shall implement the information technology 
solutions described in subsection (b) in accordance with the timelines 
described in such subsection.
    (b) Enhanced Information Technology Solutions and Timelines 
Described.--The enhanced information technology solutions and timelines 
described in this subsection are the following:
            (1) Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment 
        of this Act, the Assistant Secretary, in consultation with the 
        Chief Information Officer, shall, including if necessary 
        through the awarding of a contract or expanding an existing, 
        establish a tool to enable congressional offices to monitor the 
        status of individual passport applications being handled as 
        casework by such offices.
            (2)(A) Not later than 2 years after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act, the Assistant Secretary, in consultation 
        with the Chief Information Officer, shall take all reasonable 
        steps, including if necessary the awarding of a contract for 
        the establishment and ongoing maintenance of a service to 
        provide to passport applicants automated, voluntary proactive 
        communications, by email or text message, for each progress 
        point in the passport issuance process, and for the 
        notification of application errors, and delivery of mail 
        tracking numbers, and reminders of renewal eligibility.
            (B) Applicants shall be provided the choice of whether to 
        use the services described in subparagraph (A) and data gained 
        as a result of participation in such services shall not be 
        transferred to any third party outside the Department or its 
        contract awardees.
            (C) The services described in subparagraph (A) shall 
        provide separate options for email and text message 
        notification, as well as separate options for processing-
        related notifications and renewal eligibility notifications.
            (3)(A) Consistent with the Bureau's modernization plans and 
        timelines, and subject to the availability of funds, the 
        Assistant Secretary, in consultation with the Chief Information 
        Officer, shall seek to enter into a contract or contracts as 
        appropriate, for the establishment and maintenance of a mobile 
        application to allow for the centralization of applicant 
        communication with the Department, including document 
        submission, application status tracking, virtual appointments, 
        access to the notification of application errors, and allowing 
        for passport holders to receive messages from the Department 
        and communicate emergencies to the Department.
            (B) The Assistant Secretary shall provide each passport 
        applicant with the option of whether to use the mobile 
        application described in subparagraph (A) or another service of 
        the Department.
            (C) As a condition for awarding any contracts described in 
        subparagraph (A), the awardee shall demonstrate that it can 
        begin tests on the solution within one year of the award of the 
        contract and complete implementation, including bug fixes, 
        cybersecurity audits, and customer service testing, not later 
        than two years from the award of the contract.
            (4)(A) Consistent with existing law, the Assistant 
        Secretary, in consultation with the Chief Information Officer, 
        shall expand the online passport renewal system, including to 
        accommodate electronic acceptance of routine first-time adult 
        applications as applicable, in addition to adult renewal 
        applications in sufficient volume to be able to accommodate 
        most applications by the date that is four years from the date 
        of enactment of this Act.
            (B) Planning carried out to implement subparagraph (A) 
        shall prepare the Bureau to verify applications without 
        recourse to the information gained through appearance in person 
        described in section 1 of the Act of June 15, 1917 (22 U.S.C. 
        213), subject to any additional authorities required.
            (C) To meet the objectives described in subparagraphs (A) 
        and (B), the Assistant Secretary, in consultation with the 
        Chief Information Officer, shall, to the maximum extent 
        practicable, make use of commercially-available technology 
        solutions, including by seeking to enter into a contract or 
        contracts for the expansion and maintenance of the online 
        passport renewal system to accommodate the functionality 
        described in such subparagraphs.
            (D) In expanding the online passport renewal system 
        pursuant to subparagraph (C), the following services should be 
        included or otherwise accounted for:
                    (i) A customer-friendly, user-friendly internet 
                website or portal to facilitate internet-based 
                submission of passport applications by adults.
                    (ii) To the extent possible, remote document 
                verification tools and infrastructure, to allow for a 
                passport transaction to be completed entirely remotely.
                    (iii) To the extent possible, information 
                technology infrastructure not already maintained by the 
                Department.
            (5)(A) The Assistant Secretary, in consultation with the 
        Chief Information Officer, shall take all reasonable steps and 
        to the maximum extent practicable make use of commercially-
        available technology solutions to implement additional rules-
        based tools, including by seeking to enter into a contract or 
        contracts for such tools and their maintenance, to adjudicate 
        online passport renewal applications in which no biographical 
        information was changed for citizenship, identity, and 
        entitlement against internal and commercial databases.
            (B) The tools described in subparagraph (A) shall be fully 
        operational within 4 years of the date of the enactment of this 
        Act.
            (C) The Chief Information Officer shall ensure that the use 
        of the tools do not make passport adjudication more vulnerable 
        to cyberattack.
            (D) The Assistant Secretary, in consultation with the Chief 
        Information Officer, shall ensure that the tools described in 
        subparagraph (A) are implemented consistent with the 
        maintenance of standards appropriate to ensuring the integrity 
        of the United States passport.
            (E) For purposes of using the tools described in 
        subparagraph (A), the requirement that a passport be issued by 
        the personnel described in the first section of the Act 
        entitled ``An Act to regulate the issue and validity of 
        passports, and for other purposes'', approved July 3, 1926 (22 
        U.S.C. 211a), shall be satisfied provided that such personnel 
        oversee the tools described in such subparagraph consistent 
        with the requirements in subparagraph (D).
    (c) Certification.--In addition to other requirements in this 
section, not later than 30 days before the Assistant Secretary begins 
work to procure internally any of the information technology solutions 
described in subsection (b), the Assistant Secretary, in coordination 
with the Chief Information Officer, shall certify to the appropriate 
congressional committees that--
            (1) the reasons for procuring such service internally;
            (2) the Bureau has sufficient capacity to implement and 
        maintain such services; and
            (3) the Bureau cannot procure such services for 
        significantly reduced cost externally.
    (d) Preference.--In procuring and implementing the information 
technology solutions described in subsection (b), preference should be 
given to entities with the technical expertise necessary for the 
project and capacity to deliver timely solutions.
    (e) Role of Chief Information Officer.--
            (1) In general.--The Chief Information Officer's 
        concurrence shall be required before the Assistant Secretary 
        awards a contract pursuant to this section.
            (2) Relating to systems.--With respect to the contracting 
        and implementation of the systems described in subsection (b), 
        the Chief Information Officer shall have--
                    (A) final decision making authority on the 
                technical feasibility and specifications, cybersecurity 
                requirements, compatibility with existing Department 
                information technology infrastructure, and the 
                feasibility of timelines from a technical standpoint; 
                and
                    (B) final approval of all technical matters before 
                full implementation.
            (3) Evaluation of proposals.--In selecting the services 
        described in subsection (b), the Assistant Secretary and the 
        Chief Information Officer shall include in the criteria for 
        selection--
                    (A) the ability of the proposal to maintain 
                security, including the cybersecurity, standards 
                appropriate to the United States passport and to 
                protect personally identifiable information;
                    (B) scalability to accommodate current and future 
                passport demand; and
                    (C) long-term viability and upgradability.
    (f) Interim Action Plan.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than one year after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Assistant Secretary, in 
        consultation with the Chief Information Officer, shall submit 
        to the appropriate congressional committees an action plan on 
        how the Bureau plans to complete the modernization described in 
        this section in conjunction with other related, ongoing steps 
        to modernize the passport issuance process.
            (2) Elements.--The action plan required by paragraph (1) 
        shall include the following elements:
                    (A) Progress made on implementing the information 
                technology solutions described in subsection (b) within 
                specific timelines, and additional steps planned.
                    (B) The expected cost and timeline for 
                implementation of the information technology solutions 
                described in subsection (b).
                    (C) An evaluation of the information technology 
                solutions described in subsection (b) to determine 
                whether the full implementation of such solutions will 
                require additional funding or authorities, including 
                budget estimates and a description of such authorities, 
                as appropriate.
                    (D) Efforts to ensure world-class cybersecurity 
                standards for protection of passport applicant data and 
                the passport issuance process infrastructure, 
                particularly such infrastructure involved in 
                adjudication of passport applications.
                    (E) Other specific planned steps that the Bureau 
                will take to achieve the criteria described in section 
                4.
    (g) Final Report.--Not later than 4 years after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Assistant Secretary, in consultation with 
the Chief Information Officer, shall submit to the appropriate 
congressional committees a report on the following:
            (1) Progress on each information technology solution 
        described in subsection (b).
            (2) Additional information technology solutions the Bureau 
        intends to adopt.
            (3) Changes in the cost for implementation of the steps 
        described in the action plan, if applicable.
    (h) Form.--The plans and report required by this section shall be 
submitted in an unclassified form and may include a classified annex, 
if necessary.

SEC. 6. RESEARCH ON COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 
              SOLUTIONS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 60 days after the enactment of this 
Act, the Assistant Secretary, in coordination with the Chief 
Information Officer, shall establish a working group of appropriate 
Department employees, and contractors as appropriate, to liaise with 
the private sector for the purposes of identifying commercially 
available technologies that may be adopted by the Bureau to advance the 
criteria described in section 4, evaluating proposed technological 
solutions, and augmenting the Bureau's ongoing modernization efforts.
    (b) Composition.--The working group established pursuant to 
subsection (a) shall be composed of personnel who can consult on the 
policy, legal, and technical aspects of the passport issuance process 
with entities that wish to provide such technologies to the Department.
    (c) Pilot Projects.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the working group established pursuant to 
subsection (a) should consider piloting not fewer than three commercial 
information technology systems with potential to accelerate the 
passport renewal process, reduce the backlog of requests, and backup 
legacy systems with cloud-based software solutions.
    (d) Report.--Not later than one year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Assistant Secretary, in coordination with 
the Chief Information Officer, shall submit to the appropriate 
congressional committees a report--
            (1) describing the usefulness of the working group to the 
        Department's ongoing modernization efforts and its reception by 
        private sector actors;
            (2) containing a summary of each proposal made to the 
        working group pursuant to this section and whether the 
        Secretary intends to adopt each proposal;
            (3) providing recommendations to scale successful 
        solutions.

SEC. 7. GAO REPORT.

    (a) In General.--The Comptroller General of the United States shall 
conduct a comprehensive review of the passport issuance process, 
including--
            (1) the Bureau's goals for timeliness of passport issuance, 
        the basis for such goals, and its performance compared to those 
        goals;
            (2) key factors affecting timeliness of passport issuance 
        and the extent to which the Bureau has addressed those factors;
            (3) key factors affecting the implementation of 
        technological solutions by the Bureau;
            (4) the Bureau's efforts to implement the Travel Document 
        Issuance System (TDIS) and other related information technology 
        systems that support the passport issuance process with a focus 
        on--
                    (A) whether the Bureau is following leading 
                practices for developing, acquiring, and overseeing 
                related system and infrastructure investments and 
                leveraging existing technologies where appropriate;
                    (B) whether the program has the workforce to 
                resolve technical issues within the systems; and
                    (C) identifying any vulnerabilities and limitations 
                of the system that may impact performance, including 
                single points of failure;
            (5) opportunities to streamline, expedite, and otherwise 
        enhance the Bureau's passport issuance processes, including 
        opportunities to reduce costs in the passport issuance process;
            (6) opportunities to partner with other Federal and State 
        agencies and leverage existing United States Government 
        information sources, such as biometric databases, in support of 
        the application and identity verification and resolution 
        components of the passport issuance process; and
            (7) other matters as the Comptroller General may deem 
        appropriate.
    (b) Submission.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall--
            (1) brief the appropriate congressional committees on the 
        review required by subsection (a); and
            (2) submit a final report upon completion of such review.
    (c) Recommendations Implementation Report.--Not later than one year 
after the date on which the report required by subsection (b)(2) is 
submitted, the Assistant Secretary and the Chief Information Officer 
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on 
progress toward resolution of each recommendation made in the report 
required by such subsection and planned steps that will be taken to 
resolve each recommendation.

SEC. 8. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

    Nothing in this Act may be construed as an offer to procure a 
service or services or as a guarantee of a contract for such services.

SEC. 9. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act--
            (1) the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' 
        means--
                    (A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 
                Committee on Appropriations of the House of 
                Representatives; and
                    (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the 
                Committee on Appropriations of the Senate;
            (2) the term ``Assistant Secretary'' means the Assistant 
        Secretary of State for Consular Affairs;
            (3) except as otherwise provided, the term ``Bureau'' means 
        the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the Department;
            (4) the term ``Chief Information Officer'' means the Chief 
        Information Officer of the Bureau;
            (5) except as otherwise provided, the term ``Department'' 
        means the Department of State;
            (6) the term ``passport issuance process''--
                    (A) means all steps of passport issuance for a new 
                passport or renewal of a passport, as appropriate, from 
                the applicant's submission of documents through 
                document processing and application adjudication to 
                mailing of printed passports; and
                    (B) includes--
                            (i) the passport application submission, 
                        which includes--
                                    (I) the portion of the passport 
                                issuance process from and including 
                                passport acceptance by a passport 
                                acceptance agent until documents are 
                                received by the Department; and
                                    (II) payment processing and mail 
                                shipping times; and
                            (ii) the passport application processing, 
                        which includes the portion of the passport 
                        issuance process from the reception of 
                        completed applications and their distribution 
                        to passport agencies for adjudication until 
                        finished passports and application documents 
                        are mailed to applicants; and
            (7) the term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of State.

            Passed the House of Representatives March 19, 2024.

            Attest:

                                                                 Clerk.
118th CONGRESS

  2d Session

                               H. R. 6610

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

To provide for the modernization of the passport issuance process, and 
                          for other purposes.
```