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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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. 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. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Following the COVID–19 pandemic, the 
United States experienced a major backlog of pass-
port applications resulting in passport processing 
wait times of up to 13 weeks, exclusive of shipping 
times. 
(2) The backlog resulted in wait times which 
are an extreme outlier among developed countries 
with widely accepted passports, while United States 
pre-pandemic processing times of six to eight weeks 
are also among the slowest. 
(3) Over the past several years, the Bureau has 
experienced repeated delays in its attempts to mod-
ernize and technologize the passport issuance proc-
ess. 
(4) The adoption of additional commercially 
available information technology solutions at several 
stages of the passport issuance process would greatly 
enhance and accelerate such process. 
(5) The United States passport is a widely rec-
ognized and trusted identity and travel document 
that represents a key element of a United States 
citizen’s identity records. 
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SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) as a routine matter, an adult who has sub-
mitted a routine new or renewal passport application 
should be reliably able to expect that such applica-
tion adjudicated will be adjudicated by the Bureau, 
at a reasonable cost, in no longer than 30 days; and 
(2) the Bureau should take every effort and use 
every available technology and best practice to pro-
tect 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. 
Upon implementation of the information technology 
solutions required pursuant to section 6, in administering 
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 proc-
essing a routine new or renewal adult passport appli-
cation from document submission until mailing of 
final documents in not longer than 30 days. 
(2) To maintain affordable passport fees. 
(3) To ensure world-class technical, security, 
and cybersecurity standards for United States pass-
ports and the passport issuance process. 
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(4) To minimize downtime for the travel docu-
ment issuance system. 
(5) To achieve a near-zero suspense rate result-
ing from typographical, clerical, or picture-based er-
rors. 
(6) To provide a streamlined customer experi-
ence for passport applicants. 
(7) To provide reasonably convenient passport 
services to United States citizens and nationals liv-
ing a significant distance from a passport agency, 
particularly residents in a significant population cen-
ter more than a 5-hour drive from a passport agen-
cy. 
SEC. 5. EMERGENCY HIRING AUTHORITIES FOR CONSULAR 
SERVICES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary is authorized to 
employ a limited number of personal services contractors 
for employment in the United States in order to meet exi-
gent needs of the Bureau. 
(b) AUTHORITY
IN ADDITION
TO EXISTING AU-
THORITIES.—The authority described in subsection (a) is 
in addition to any existing authorities to enter into con-
tracts with such personal services contractors. 
(c) EMPLOYING AND ALLOCATION OF PERSONNEL.— 
To meet the requirements described in subsection (a) and 
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subject to the requirements of subsection (b), the Sec-
retary may— 
(1) employ a total of up to 100 personal serv-
ices contractors at any given time in each of the fis-
cal years 2024, 2025, and 2026; 
(2) allocate personal services contractors to 
other elements of the Department in order to back-
fill personnel who have been assigned to work in the 
Bureau, except that not more than 20 such contrac-
tors may be assigned to any one element of the De-
partment other than the Bureau; and 
(3) allocate personal services contractors to ele-
ments of the Department without regard to the 
sources of funding such element relies on to com-
pensate individuals. 
(d) LIMITATION.—Employment authorized by this 
section may not exceed 2 calendar years. 
(e) PERSONAL SERVICES CONTRACTORS.—Personal 
services contractors hired pursuant to this section shall 
be considered as employees of the Department of State 
for the purposes of 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). 
(f) NOTIFICATION AND REPORTING TO CONGRESS.— 
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(1) NOTIFICATION.—At least 15 days prior to 
the exercise of the authority of this section, the Sec-
retary shall notify the appropriate congressional 
committees of the number of personal services con-
tractors being employed, the expected length of em-
ployment, the bureaus in which such contractors are 
being employed, the purpose for using personal serv-
ices contractors, and the justification, including the 
exigent circumstances requiring such use. 
(2) ANNUAL REPORTING.—Not later than 60 
days after the end of each fiscal year specified in 
subsection (c)(1), the Secretary shall submit to the 
appropriate congressional committees a report that 
contains the matters described in paragraph (1) with 
respect to such fiscal year. 
SEC. 6. ENHANCED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SOLU-
TIONS 
TO 
IMPROVE 
THE 
PASSPORT 
ISSUANCE PROCESS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Assistant Secretary, in con-
sultation with the Chief Information Officer, shall imple-
ment the information technology solutions described in 
subsection (b) in accordance with the timelines described 
in such subsection. 
(b) ENHANCED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SOLU-
TIONS AND TIMELINES DESCRIBED.—The enhanced infor-
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mation technology solutions and timelines described in this 
subsection are the following: 
(1)(A) Not later than 60 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the Chief Information Of-
ficer shall award a contract or expand an existing 
contract to provide a digital dashboard to provide 
congressional offices with the ability to track the 
status of individual passport applications being han-
dled as casework by such offices. 
(B) Not later than 180 days after such date of 
enactment, the Chief Information Officer shall com-
plete implementation of the dashboard described in 
subparagraph (A). 
(2)(A) Not later than one year after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the Assistant Sec-
retary, in consultation with the Chief Information 
Officer, shall award a contract for the establishment 
and maintenance of— 
(i) a service to provide to passport appli-
cants automated, voluntary proactive commu-
nications, 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 re-
minders of renewal eligibility; 
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(ii) a mobile application to allow for the 
centralization of applicant communication with 
the Department, including document submis-
sion, application status tracking, virtual ap-
pointments, access to the notification of appli-
cation errors described in clause (i), and allow-
ing for passport holders to receive messages 
from the Department and communicate emer-
gencies to the Department. 
(B) The services described in subparagraph (A) 
shall be offered to applicants on an opt-in basis only 
and data gained as a result of such opt-in shall not 
be transferred to any third party. 
(C) With respect to the service described in 
clause (A)(i), the Secretary shall provide separate 
options to opt-in to email and text message notifica-
tion, as well as separate options to opt-in to proc-
essing-related notifications and renewal eligibility no-
tifications. 
(D) As a condition for awarding the 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, cyber-
security audits, and customer service testing, not 
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later than three years from the award of the con-
tract. 
(3)(A) Not later than one year after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the Assistant Sec-
retary, in consultation with the Chief Information 
Officer, shall award a contract or contracts for the 
expansion and maintenance of the online passport 
renewal system to be able to accommodate both rou-
tine first-time adult applications and renewal adult 
passport applications. 
(B) The contracts awarded pursuant to sub-
paragraph (A) shall cover the following services: 
(i) A customer-friendly internet website or 
portal to facilitate internet-based submission of 
adult passport applications. 
(ii) 
Necessary 
remote 
document 
verification tools and infrastructure, to allow 
for a passport transaction to be completed en-
tirely remotely. 
(iii) Necessary information technology in-
frastructure not already maintained by the De-
partment. 
(C) The expansion of the online passport re-
newal system and associated systems shall, upon full 
implementation, be able to accommodate sufficient 
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volume to process 100 percent of expected routine 
new and renewal adult passport applications for the 
five years following the date on which the system is 
fully implemented. 
(D)(i) If applicable, not later than two years 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, services 
contracted pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be 
carried out on a pilot basis. 
(ii) Not later than three years after such date 
of enactment, services contracted pursuant to sub-
paragraph (A) shall be able to accommodate 25 per-
cent of new and renewal adult passport applications. 
(iii) Not later than four years after such date 
of enactment, services contracted pursuant to sub-
paragraph (A) shall be fully implemented. 
(iv) In awarding contracts pursuant to subpara-
graph (A), the Secretary shall only consider pro-
posals that can reasonably be expected to meet the 
timelines described in this subparagraph. 
(E) Nothing in this paragraph shall be con-
strued as authorization to terminate the acceptance 
of paper-based passport applications. 
(4)(A) not later than 180 days after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the Chief Information 
Officer, in coordination with the Assistant Secretary, 
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shall award a contract or contracts for the provision 
of rules-based tools to screen online passport renewal 
applications in which no biographical information 
was changed for citizenship, identity, and entitle-
ment against internal and commercial databases. 
(B) The tools described in subparagraph (A) 
shall be fully operational within one year of the 
award of the contract. 
(C) The Chief Information Officer shall ensure 
that the use of the tools do not provide vectors for 
cyberattack. 
(D) The Assistant Secretary shall ensure that 
the tools described in subparagraph (A) are imple-
mented consistent with the maintenance of passport 
integrity standards. 
(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 sec-
tion 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) ROLE OF CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER.— 
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The Chief Information Offi-
cer’s approval shall be required before the Assistant 
Secretary awards a contract pursuant to this sec-
tion. 
(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, cyberse-
curity requirements, compatibility with existing 
Department information technology infrastruc-
ture, 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 Chief 
Information Officer shall include in the criteria for 
selection— 
(A) the ability of the system to maintain 
security, including the cybersecurity, standards 
appropriate to the United States passport and 
to protect personally identifiable information; 
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(B) scalability to accommodate current and 
future passport demand; and 
(C) long-term viability and upgradability. 
(d) ACTION PLAN.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than one year 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the As-
sistant Secretary and the Chief Information Officer 
shall submit to the appropriate congressional com-
mittees an action plan on how the Bureau plans to 
complete the modernizations described in this section 
and complete other ongoing modernizations of the 
passport issuance process. 
(2) ELEMENTS.—The action plan required by 
paragraph (1) shall include the following elements: 
(A) The implementation progress for the 
information technology solutions described in 
subsection (b). 
(B) The specific implementation steps for 
the solutions described in subsection (b) that 
Bureau of Consular Affairs and the Bureau of 
Information Resource Management will take, in 
conjunction with contract awardees, to meet the 
timelines described in subsection (b). 
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(C) The expected cost and timeline for im-
plementation of the information technology so-
lutions described in subsection (b). 
(D) An evaluation of the information tech-
nology 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. 
(E) Steps, processes, and technologies the 
Chief Information Officer intends to use to en-
sure world-class cybersecurity standards for 
protection of passport applicant data and the 
passport issuance process infrastructure, par-
ticularly such infrastructure involved in adju-
dication of passport applications. 
(F) A staffing plan for the four years be-
ginning on the first day of the month during 
which the action plan will be submitted describ-
ing the expected staffing needs of the Bureau 
for the passport issuance process. 
(G) Other specific planned steps that the 
Bureau will take to achieve the criteria de-
scribed in section 4. 
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(e) ONGOING REPORTING.—Not later than 90 days 
after the interim plan described in subsection (d), and 
quarterly thereafter until such time as the Bureau has 
completed implementation of the items described in sub-
section (b), the Assistant Secretary, in consultation with 
the Chief Information Officer, shall submit to the appro-
priate congressional committees a report on the following: 
(1) Progress on each item described in sub-
section (b). 
(2) Additional modernizations the Bureau in-
tends to adopt. 
(3) Changes in the cost for implementation of 
the steps described in the action plan, if applicable. 
(f) FORM.—The plans and report required by this 
section shall be submitted in an unclassified form and may 
include classified a annex, if necessary. 
SEC. 7. RESEARCH ON COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE INFOR-
MATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—In conducting the review required 
by subsection (a), the Chief Information Officer shall so-
licit the private sector for proposals to identify commer-
cially available technologies that may be adopted by the 
Bureau to advance the criteria described in section 4. 
(b) REQUIREMENTS.—Not later than 60 days after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, in furtherance of 
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the requirement under subsection (a), the Chief Informa-
tion Officer shall— 
(1) publish such solicitation and the process for 
responding to the solicitation in the Federal Register 
and notify the appropriate congressional committees 
thereof; 
(2) solicit proposals for information technology 
services that improve any aspect of the passport 
issuance process, including the online passport re-
newal system, by allowing it to meet one or more of 
the criteria described in section 4; and 
(3) establish a team, in cooperation with the 
Assistant Secretary, of appropriate Department em-
ployees and contractors to serve as the point of con-
tact for, and to consult on policy, legal, and tech-
nical aspects of the passport issuance process with 
entities considering submitting a proposal. 
(c) EVALUATION.—For each such proposal, the Chief 
Information Officer shall evaluate the cost, security, and 
likely benefits, including benefits to customer satisfaction, 
digitization, and adjudication streamlining. 
(d) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion may be construed as an offer to procure services pro-
posed to the Bureau pursuant to the solicitation of pro-
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posals required by paragraph (1) or as a guarantee of a 
contract for such services. 
(e) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the Chief Information Offi-
cer, in coordination with the Assistant Secretary, shall 
submit to the appropriate congressional committees a re-
port— 
(1) describing opportunities to leverage the pri-
vate sector and commercially available technologies 
to streamline, expedite, or otherwise enhance the 
passport issuance process; and 
(2) containing a summary of each proposal 
made pursuant to this section and whether the Sec-
retary intends to adopt each proposal. 
SEC. 8. GAO REPORT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 
of the United States shall initiate a comprehensive review 
of the passport issuance process designed to enable the 
Bureau to better meet the criteria described in section 4 
by identifying— 
(1) weaknesses within such process; 
(2) additional opportunities to leverage commer-
cially available technologies and global best prac-
tices; 
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(3) opportunities to streamline, expedite, and 
otherwise enhance such process. 
(b) ELEMENTS.—The review required by subsection 
(a) shall include the following elements: 
(1) A technical audit of the Travel Document 
Issuance System (TDIS) and other passport- 
issuance information technology systems that seeks 
to identify— 
(A) aspects of the systems, including sys-
tem architecture, that may impact its perform-
ance, scalability, and uptime; 
(B) single points of failure within the sys-
tems; 
(C) potential areas where commercially 
available information technology solutions could 
be employed to modernize the systems, and the 
likely costs to the Department of acquiring and 
implementing such solutions; and 
(D) aspects, including staffing, that may 
impact the speed of resolving technical issues 
within the systems. 
(2) An evaluation of the importance of each 
human aspect of the passport issuance process to de-
termine whether such aspects can be replaced by se-
cure digital processes. 
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(3) Based on consultations conducted pursuant 
to subsection (c), a discussion of global best prac-
tices and standards, including benchmarks for appli-
cation fees and processing times for passport 
issuance. 
(4) Measures the Comptroller believes the Bu-
reau could take to reduce the cost of the passport 
issuance process or of application fees or surcharges. 
(5) An analysis of potential partnerships with 
other Federal agencies, including the Department of 
Homeland Security and its component agencies, the 
Social Security Administration, and the United 
States Postal Service, which could support the iden-
tity verification and resolution component of the 
passport issuance process. 
(6) Whether partnerships with the departments 
of motor vehicles of the several States to collect and 
electronically submit passport applications, including 
pictures, fees, and digital copies of identity docu-
ments, to the Bureau would be a viable and secure 
method of passport application submission. 
(7) An evaluation of other United States Gov-
ernment holdings, including biometric databases, 
that could be queried to support the Department’s 
identity resolution processes to increase the security 
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of the identity verification and resolution component 
of the passport issuance process. 
(c) RESEARCH ON GLOBAL BEST PRACTICES.—In 
conducting the review required by subsection (a), the 
Comptroller shall consult with the Governments of the Re-
public of Korea and India and with no fewer than four 
other foreign governments to ascertain global best prac-
tices for passport processing and to identify processes, ap-
proaches, and technologies that may be useful to inform 
the modernization of the passport issuance process. 
(d) SUBMISSION.—Upon completion of the review re-
quired by subsection (a), the Comptroller shall submit to 
the appropriate congressional committees, to the Assistant 
Secretary, and to the Chief Information Officer a report 
that contains the results of the review. 
(e) 
RECOMMENDATIONS
IMPLEMENTATION
RE-
PORT.—Not later than 90 days after the date on which 
the report required by subsection (d) is submitted, and 
quarterly thereafter, the Assistant Secretary and the Chief 
Information Officer shall submit to the appropriate con-
gressional committees a report on progress toward resolu-
tion of each recommendation made in the report required 
by subsection (d) and planned steps that will be taken to 
resolve each recommendation over the next quarter. 
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SEC. 9. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act— 
(1) the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ 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) 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 ‘‘De-
partment’’ 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— 
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(i) the passport application submis-
sion, which includes— 
(I) the portion of the passport 
issuance process from and including 
passport acceptance by a passport ac-
ceptance agent until documents are 
received by the Department; and 
(II) payment processing and mail 
shipping times; and 
(ii) the passport application proc-
essing, which includes the portion of the 
passport issuance process from the recep-
tion of completed applications and their 
distribution to passport agencies for adju-
dication until finished passports and appli-
cation documents are mailed to applicants; 
and 
(7) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 
of State. 
Æ 
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