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 Af-
fairs 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of State to submit a plan to elimi-
nate the passport application backlog, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Passport Backlog 
Elimination Act’’. 
SEC. 2. PLAN TO ELIMINATE PASSPORT APPLICATION 
BACKLOG. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, after consultation with 
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the appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary of 
State shall submit to such committees a plan, including 
the actionable strategies described in subsection (b), to en-
sure the current backlog of passport applications due to 
the COVID-19 pandemic is eliminated in a timely manner 
in order to promote the national security and economic 
interests of the United States. 
(b) 
ACTIONABLE
STRATEGIES.—The 
actionable 
strategies described in this subsection are to— 
(1) eliminate the backlog of at least 1.4 million 
passport applications; 
(2) establish a timeline for the elimination of 
such backlog; and 
(3) ensure— 
(A) that the expected processing time 
for— 
(i) routine passport applications is be-
tween six and eight weeks; 
(ii) expedited passport applications is 
between two to three weeks; and 
(iii) expedited passport applications 
for Federal Government personnel is not 
more than eight business days; 
(B) the safety of Department of State per-
sonnel and customers and compliance with all 
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applicable Federal, State, and local health and 
social distancing guidelines; and 
(C) the ability for expedited service for ap-
plicants requiring a passport for purposes re-
lated to their employment. 
(c) IMPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 30 days after 
the submission of the plan under subsection (a), the Sec-
retary of State shall begin implementation of the plan to 
eliminate the backlog of passport applications due to the 
COVID-19 pandemic. 
(d) INSPECTOR GENERAL AUDIT.—Not later than 
180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Inspector General of the Department of State shall submit 
to Congress an audit on the elimination of the passport 
application backlog required by the plan required under 
subsection (a), and the Department’s actionable strategies 
described in subsection (b). 
(e) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘appro-
priate congressional committees’’ means the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Oversight and Re-
form of the House of Representatives and the Committee 
on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Homeland Se-
curity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 
Æ 
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