I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 6610 

To provide for the modernization of the passport issuance process, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 6, 2023 

Mr. ISSA (for himself and Ms. SALAZAR) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To provide for the modernization of the passport issuance 

process, 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 AND TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Passport System Reform and Backlog Prevention Act’’. 

6 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

7 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. Emergency hiring authorities for consular services. 

Sec. 6. Enhanced information technology solutions to improve the passport 

issuance process. 


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Sec. 7. Research on commercially available information technology solutions. 

Sec. 8. GAO report. 

Sec. 9. Definitions. 

1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Following the COVID–19 pandemic, the 

4 United States experienced a major backlog of pass5 port applications resulting in passport processing 

6 wait times of up to 13 weeks, exclusive of shipping 

7 times. 

8 (2) The backlog resulted in wait times which 

9 are an extreme outlier among developed countries 

10 with widely accepted passports, while United States 

11 pre-pandemic processing times of six to eight weeks 

12 are also among the slowest. 

13 (3) Over the past several years, the Bureau has 

14 experienced repeated delays in its attempts to mod15 ernize and technologize the passport issuance proc16 ess. 

17 (4) The adoption of additional commercially 

18 available information technology solutions at several 

19 stages of the passport issuance process would greatly 

20 enhance and accelerate such process. 

21 (5) The United States passport is a widely rec22 ognized and trusted identity and travel document 

23 that represents a key element of a United States 

24 citizen’s identity records. 


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1 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

2 It is the sense of Congress that— 

3 (1) as a routine matter, an adult who has sub4 mitted a routine new or renewal passport application 

5 should be reliably able to expect that such applica6 tion adjudicated will be adjudicated by the Bureau, 

7 at a reasonable cost, in no longer than 30 days; and 

8 (2) the Bureau should take every effort and use 

9 every available technology and best practice to pro10 tect the integrity of the passport issuance process, 

11 the privacy of passport holders, and the efficiency of 

12 processing passport issuance requests. 

13 SEC. 4. STANDARDS FOR PASSPORT ISSUANCE PROCESS. 

14 Upon implementation of the information technology 

15 solutions required pursuant to section 6, in administering 

16 the passport issuance process, the Assistant Secretary 

17 shall evaluate the performance of such process against the 

18 following criteria: 

19 (1) To maintain a service standard of proc20 essing a routine new or renewal adult passport appli21 cation from document submission until mailing of 

22 final documents in not longer than 30 days. 

23 (2) To maintain affordable passport fees. 

24 (3) To ensure world-class technical, security, 

25 and cybersecurity standards for United States pass26 ports and the passport issuance process. 


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1 (4) To minimize downtime for the travel docu2 ment issuance system. 

3 (5) To achieve a near-zero suspense rate result4 ing from typographical, clerical, or picture-based er5 rors. 

6 (6) To provide a streamlined customer experi7 ence for passport applicants. 

8 (7) To provide reasonably convenient passport 

9 services to United States citizens and nationals liv10 ing a significant distance from a passport agency, 

11 particularly residents in a significant population cen12 ter more than a 5-hour drive from a passport agen13 cy. 

14 SEC. 5. EMERGENCY HIRING AUTHORITIES FOR CONSULAR 

15 SERVICES. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary is authorized to 

17 employ a limited number of personal services contractors 

18 for employment in the United States in order to meet exi19 gent needs of the Bureau. 

20 (b) AUTHORITY IN ADDITION TO EXISTING AU21 THORITIES.—The authority described in subsection (a) is 

22 in addition to any existing authorities to enter into con23 tracts with such personal services contractors. 

24 (c) EMPLOYING AND ALLOCATION OF PERSONNEL.— 

25 To meet the requirements described in subsection (a) and 


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1 subject to the requirements of subsection (b), the Sec2 retary may— 

3 (1) employ a total of up to 100 personal serv4 ices contractors at any given time in each of the fis5 cal years 2024, 2025, and 2026; 

6 (2) allocate personal services contractors to 

7 other elements of the Department in order to back8 fill personnel who have been assigned to work in the 

9 Bureau, except that not more than 20 such contrac10 tors may be assigned to any one element of the De11 partment other than the Bureau; and 

12 (3) allocate personal services contractors to ele13 ments of the Department without regard to the 

14 sources of funding such element relies on to com15 pensate individuals. 

16 (d) LIMITATION.—Employment authorized by this 

17 section may not exceed 2 calendar years. 

18 (e) PERSONAL SERVICES CONTRACTORS.—Personal 

19 services contractors hired pursuant to this section shall 

20 be considered as employees of the Department of State 

21 for the purposes of the first section of the Act entitled 

22 ‘‘An Act to regulate the issue and validity of passports, 

23 and for other purposes’’, approved July 3, 1926 (22 

24 U.S.C. 211a). 

25 (f) NOTIFICATION AND REPORTING TO CONGRESS.— 


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1 (1) NOTIFICATION.—At least 15 days prior to 

2 the exercise of the authority of this section, the Sec3 retary shall notify the appropriate congressional 

4 committees of the number of personal services con5 tractors being employed, the expected length of em6 ployment, the bureaus in which such contractors are 

7 being employed, the purpose for using personal serv8 ices contractors, and the justification, including the 

9 exigent circumstances requiring such use. 

10 (2) ANNUAL REPORTING.—Not later than 60 

11 days after the end of each fiscal year specified in 

12 subsection (c)(1), the Secretary shall submit to the 

13 appropriate congressional committees a report that 

14 contains the matters described in paragraph (1) with 

15 respect to such fiscal year. 

16 SEC. 6. ENHANCED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SOLU17 TIONS TO IMPROVE THE PASSPORT 

18 ISSUANCE PROCESS. 

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Assistant Secretary, in con20 sultation with the Chief Information Officer, shall imple21 ment the information technology solutions described in 

22 subsection (b) in accordance with the timelines described 

23 in such subsection. 

24 (b) ENHANCED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SOLU25 TIONS AND TIMELINES DESCRIBED.—The enhanced inforVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:47 Dec 22, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6610.IH H6610

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1 mation technology solutions and timelines described in this 

2 subsection are the following: 

3 (1)(A) Not later than 60 days after the date of 

4 the enactment of this Act, the Chief Information Of5 ficer shall award a contract or expand an existing 

6 contract to provide a digital dashboard to provide 

7 congressional offices with the ability to track the 

8 status of individual passport applications being han9 dled as casework by such offices. 

10 (B) Not later than 180 days after such date of 

11 enactment, the Chief Information Officer shall com12 plete implementation of the dashboard described in 

13 subparagraph (A). 

14 (2)(A) Not later than one year after the date 

15 of the enactment of this Act, the Assistant Sec16 retary, in consultation with the Chief Information 

17 Officer, shall award a contract for the establishment 

18 and maintenance of— 

19 (i) a service to provide to passport appli20 cants automated, voluntary proactive commu21 nications, by email or text message, for each 

22 progress point in the passport issuance process, 

23 and for the notification of application errors, 

24 and delivery of mail tracking numbers, and re25 minders of renewal eligibility; 


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1 (ii) a mobile application to allow for the 

2 centralization of applicant communication with 

3 the Department, including document submis4 sion, application status tracking, virtual ap5 pointments, access to the notification of appli6 cation errors described in clause (i), and allow7 ing for passport holders to receive messages 

8 from the Department and communicate emer9 gencies to the Department. 

10 (B) The services described in subparagraph (A) 

11 shall be offered to applicants on an opt-in basis only 

12 and data gained as a result of such opt-in shall not 

13 be transferred to any third party. 

14 (C) With respect to the service described in 

15 clause (A)(i), the Secretary shall provide separate 

16 options to opt-in to email and text message notifica17 tion, as well as separate options to opt-in to proc18 essing-related notifications and renewal eligibility no19 tifications. 

20 (D) As a condition for awarding the contracts 

21 described in subparagraph (A), the awardee shall 

22 demonstrate that it can begin tests on the solution 

23 within one year of the award of the contract and 

24 complete implementation, including bug fixes, cyber25 security audits, and customer service testing, not 


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1 later than three years from the award of the con2 tract. 

3 (3)(A) Not later than one year after the date 

4 of the enactment of this Act, the Assistant Sec5 retary, in consultation with the Chief Information 

6 Officer, shall award a contract or contracts for the 

7 expansion and maintenance of the online passport 

8 renewal system to be able to accommodate both rou9 tine first-time adult applications and renewal adult 

10 passport applications. 

11 (B) The contracts awarded pursuant to sub12 paragraph (A) shall cover the following services: 

13 (i) A customer-friendly internet website or 

14 portal to facilitate internet-based submission of 

15 adult passport applications. 

16 (ii) Necessary remote document 

17 verification tools and infrastructure, to allow 

18 for a passport transaction to be completed en19 tirely remotely. 

20 (iii) Necessary information technology in21 frastructure not already maintained by the De22 partment. 

23 (C) The expansion of the online passport re24 newal system and associated systems shall, upon full 

25 implementation, be able to accommodate sufficient 


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1 volume to process 100 percent of expected routine 

2 new and renewal adult passport applications for the 

3 five years following the date on which the system is 

4 fully implemented. 

5 (D)(i) If applicable, not later than two years 

6 after the date of the enactment of this Act, services 

7 contracted pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be 

8 carried out on a pilot basis. 

9 (ii) Not later than three years after such date 

10 of enactment, services contracted pursuant to sub11 paragraph (A) shall be able to accommodate 25 per12 cent of new and renewal adult passport applications. 

13 (iii) Not later than four years after such date 

14 of enactment, services contracted pursuant to sub15 paragraph (A) shall be fully implemented. 

16 (iv) In awarding contracts pursuant to subpara17 graph (A), the Secretary shall only consider pro18 posals that can reasonably be expected to meet the 

19 timelines described in this subparagraph. 

20 (E) Nothing in this paragraph shall be con21 strued as authorization to terminate the acceptance 

22 of paper-based passport applications. 

23 (4)(A) not later than 180 days after the date 

24 of the enactment of this Act, the Chief Information 

25 Officer, in coordination with the Assistant Secretary, 


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1 shall award a contract or contracts for the provision 

2 of rules-based tools to screen online passport renewal 

3 applications in which no biographical information 

4 was changed for citizenship, identity, and entitle5 ment against internal and commercial databases. 

6 (B) The tools described in subparagraph (A) 

7 shall be fully operational within one year of the 

8 award of the contract. 

9 (C) The Chief Information Officer shall ensure 

10 that the use of the tools do not provide vectors for 

11 cyberattack. 

12 (D) The Assistant Secretary shall ensure that 

13 the tools described in subparagraph (A) are imple14 mented consistent with the maintenance of passport 

15 integrity standards. 

16 (E) For purposes of using the tools described in 

17 subparagraph (A), the requirement that a passport 

18 be issued by the personnel described in the first sec19 tion of the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to regulate the issue 

20 and validity of passports, and for other purposes’’, 

21 approved July 3, 1926 (22 U.S.C. 211a), shall be 

22 satisfied provided that such personnel oversee the 

23 tools described in such subparagraph consistent with 

24 the requirements in subparagraph (D). 

25 (c) ROLE OF CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Chief Information Offi2 cer’s approval shall be required before the Assistant 

3 Secretary awards a contract pursuant to this sec4 tion. 

5 (2) RELATING TO SYSTEMS.—With respect to 

6 the contracting and implementation of the systems 

7 described in subsection (b), the Chief Information 

8 Officer shall have— 

9 (A) final decision making authority on the 

10 technical feasibility and specifications, cyberse11 curity requirements, compatibility with existing 

12 Department information technology infrastruc13 ture, and the feasibility of timelines from a 

14 technical standpoint; and 

15 (B) final approval of all technical matters 

16 before full implementation. 

17 (3) EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS.—In selecting 

18 the services described in subsection (b), the Chief 

19 Information Officer shall include in the criteria for 

20 selection— 

21 (A) the ability of the system to maintain 

22 security, including the cybersecurity, standards 

23 appropriate to the United States passport and 

24 to protect personally identifiable information; 


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1 (B) scalability to accommodate current and 

2 future passport demand; and 

3 (C) long-term viability and upgradability. 

4 (d) ACTION PLAN.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 

6 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the As7 sistant Secretary and the Chief Information Officer 

8 shall submit to the appropriate congressional com9 mittees an action plan on how the Bureau plans to 

10 complete the modernizations described in this section 

11 and complete other ongoing modernizations of the 

12 passport issuance process. 

13 (2) ELEMENTS.—The action plan required by 

14 paragraph (1) shall include the following elements: 

15 (A) The implementation progress for the 

16 information technology solutions described in 

17 subsection (b). 

18 (B) The specific implementation steps for 

19 the solutions described in subsection (b) that 

20 Bureau of Consular Affairs and the Bureau of 

21 Information Resource Management will take, in 

22 conjunction with contract awardees, to meet the 

23 timelines described in subsection (b). 


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1 (C) The expected cost and timeline for im2 plementation of the information technology so3 lutions described in subsection (b). 

4 (D) An evaluation of the information tech5 nology solutions described in subsection (b) to 

6 determine whether the full implementation of 

7 such solutions will require additional funding or 

8 authorities, including budget estimates and a 

9 description of such authorities, as appropriate. 

10 (E) Steps, processes, and technologies the 

11 Chief Information Officer intends to use to en12 sure world-class cybersecurity standards for 

13 protection of passport applicant data and the 

14 passport issuance process infrastructure, par15 ticularly such infrastructure involved in adju16 dication of passport applications. 

17 (F) A staffing plan for the four years be18 ginning on the first day of the month during 

19 which the action plan will be submitted describ20 ing the expected staffing needs of the Bureau 

21 for the passport issuance process. 

22 (G) Other specific planned steps that the 

23 Bureau will take to achieve the criteria de24 scribed in section 4. 


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1 (e) ONGOING REPORTING.—Not later than 90 days 

2 after the interim plan described in subsection (d), and 

3 quarterly thereafter until such time as the Bureau has 

4 completed implementation of the items described in sub5 section (b), the Assistant Secretary, in consultation with 

6 the Chief Information Officer, shall submit to the appro7 priate congressional committees a report on the following: 

8 (1) Progress on each item described in sub9 section (b). 

10 (2) Additional modernizations the Bureau in11 tends to adopt. 

12 (3) Changes in the cost for implementation of 

13 the steps described in the action plan, if applicable. 

14 (f) FORM.—The plans and report required by this 

15 section shall be submitted in an unclassified form and may 

16 include classified a annex, if necessary. 

17 SEC. 7. RESEARCH ON COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE INFOR18 MATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS. 

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—In conducting the review required 

20 by subsection (a), the Chief Information Officer shall so21 licit the private sector for proposals to identify commer22 cially available technologies that may be adopted by the 

23 Bureau to advance the criteria described in section 4. 

24 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—Not later than 60 days after 

25 the date of the enactment of this Act, in furtherance of 


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1 the requirement under subsection (a), the Chief Informa2 tion Officer shall— 

3 (1) publish such solicitation and the process for 

4 responding to the solicitation in the Federal Register 

5 and notify the appropriate congressional committees 

6 thereof; 

7 (2) solicit proposals for information technology 

8 services that improve any aspect of the passport 

9 issuance process, including the online passport re10 newal system, by allowing it to meet one or more of 

11 the criteria described in section 4; and 

12 (3) establish a team, in cooperation with the 

13 Assistant Secretary, of appropriate Department em14 ployees and contractors to serve as the point of con15 tact for, and to consult on policy, legal, and tech16 nical aspects of the passport issuance process with 

17 entities considering submitting a proposal. 

18 (c) EVALUATION.—For each such proposal, the Chief 

19 Information Officer shall evaluate the cost, security, and 

20 likely benefits, including benefits to customer satisfaction, 

21 digitization, and adjudication streamlining. 

22 (d) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec23 tion may be construed as an offer to procure services pro24 posed to the Bureau pursuant to the solicitation of proVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:47 Dec 22, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6610.IH H6610

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1 posals required by paragraph (1) or as a guarantee of a 

2 contract for such services. 

3 (e) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 

4 of the enactment of this Act, the Chief Information Offi5 cer, in coordination with the Assistant Secretary, shall 

6 submit to the appropriate congressional committees a re7 port— 

8 (1) describing opportunities to leverage the pri9 vate sector and commercially available technologies 

10 to streamline, expedite, or otherwise enhance the 

11 passport issuance process; and 

12 (2) containing a summary of each proposal 

13 made pursuant to this section and whether the Sec14 retary intends to adopt each proposal. 

15 SEC. 8. GAO REPORT. 

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

17 date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 

18 of the United States shall initiate a comprehensive review 

19 of the passport issuance process designed to enable the 

20 Bureau to better meet the criteria described in section 4 

21 by identifying— 

22 (1) weaknesses within such process; 

23 (2) additional opportunities to leverage commer24 cially available technologies and global best prac25 tices; 


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1 (3) opportunities to streamline, expedite, and 

2 otherwise enhance such process. 

3 (b) ELEMENTS.—The review required by subsection 

4 (a) shall include the following elements: 

5 (1) A technical audit of the Travel Document 

6 Issuance System (TDIS) and other passport7 issuance information technology systems that seeks 

8 to identify— 

9 (A) aspects of the systems, including sys10 tem architecture, that may impact its perform11 ance, scalability, and uptime; 

12 (B) single points of failure within the sys13 tems; 

14 (C) potential areas where commercially 

15 available information technology solutions could 

16 be employed to modernize the systems, and the 

17 likely costs to the Department of acquiring and 

18 implementing such solutions; and 

19 (D) aspects, including staffing, that may 

20 impact the speed of resolving technical issues 

21 within the systems. 

22 (2) An evaluation of the importance of each 

23 human aspect of the passport issuance process to de24 termine whether such aspects can be replaced by se25 cure digital processes. 


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1 (3) Based on consultations conducted pursuant 

2 to subsection (c), a discussion of global best prac3 tices and standards, including benchmarks for appli4 cation fees and processing times for passport 

5 issuance. 

6 (4) Measures the Comptroller believes the Bu7 reau could take to reduce the cost of the passport 

8 issuance process or of application fees or surcharges. 

9 (5) An analysis of potential partnerships with 

10 other Federal agencies, including the Department of 

11 Homeland Security and its component agencies, the 

12 Social Security Administration, and the United 

13 States Postal Service, which could support the iden14 tity verification and resolution component of the 

15 passport issuance process. 

16 (6) Whether partnerships with the departments 

17 of motor vehicles of the several States to collect and 

18 electronically submit passport applications, including 

19 pictures, fees, and digital copies of identity docu20 ments, to the Bureau would be a viable and secure 

21 method of passport application submission. 

22 (7) An evaluation of other United States Gov23 ernment holdings, including biometric databases, 

24 that could be queried to support the Department’s 

25 identity resolution processes to increase the security 


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1 of the identity verification and resolution component 

2 of the passport issuance process. 

3 (c) RESEARCH ON GLOBAL BEST PRACTICES.—In 

4 conducting the review required by subsection (a), the 

5 Comptroller shall consult with the Governments of the Re6 public of Korea and India and with no fewer than four 

7 other foreign governments to ascertain global best prac8 tices for passport processing and to identify processes, ap9 proaches, and technologies that may be useful to inform 

10 the modernization of the passport issuance process. 

11 (d) SUBMISSION.—Upon completion of the review re12 quired by subsection (a), the Comptroller shall submit to 

13 the appropriate congressional committees, to the Assistant 

14 Secretary, and to the Chief Information Officer a report 

15 that contains the results of the review. 

16 (e) RECOMMENDATIONS IMPLEMENTATION RE17 PORT.—Not later than 90 days after the date on which 

18 the report required by subsection (d) is submitted, and 

19 quarterly thereafter, the Assistant Secretary and the Chief 

20 Information Officer shall submit to the appropriate con21 gressional committees a report on progress toward resolu22 tion of each recommendation made in the report required 

23 by subsection (d) and planned steps that will be taken to 

24 resolve each recommendation over the next quarter. 


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1 SEC. 9. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act— 

3 (1) the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com4 mittees’’ means— 

5 (A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 

6 the Committee on Appropriations of the House 

7 of Representatives; and 

8 (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 

9 and the Committee on Appropriations of the 

10 Senate; 

11 (2) the term ‘‘Assistant Secretary’’ means the 

12 Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs; 

13 (3) the term ‘‘Bureau’’ means the Bureau of 

14 Consular Affairs of the Department; 

15 (4) the term ‘‘Chief Information Officer’’ means 

16 the Chief Information Officer of the Bureau; 

17 (5) except as otherwise provided, the term ‘‘De18 partment’’ means the Department of State; 

19 (6) the term ‘‘passport issuance process’’— 

20 (A) means all steps of passport issuance 

21 for a new passport or renewal of a passport, as 

22 appropriate, from the applicant’s submission of 

23 documents through document processing and 

24 application adjudication to mailing of printed 

25 passports; and 

26 (B) includes— 


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1 (i) the passport application submis2 sion, which includes— 

3 (I) the portion of the passport 

4 issuance process from and including 

5 passport acceptance by a passport ac6 ceptance agent until documents are 

7 received by the Department; and 

8 (II) payment processing and mail 

9 shipping times; and 

10 (ii) the passport application proc11 essing, which includes the portion of the 

12 passport issuance process from the recep13 tion of completed applications and their 

14 distribution to passport agencies for adju15 dication until finished passports and appli16 cation documents are mailed to applicants; 

17 and 

18 (7) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 

19 of State. 

Æ 


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