[GJM] Get Real

[marguerite hampton]

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http://governing.typepad.com/13thfloor/2007/03/get_real.html#more

Monday, March 19, 2007

Get Real

posted by Ellen Perlman

States must be crying crocodile tears over woes at the State  

Department about delays in issuing passports.



The federal government is struggling under an onslaught of passport  

applications due to tougher immigration laws and a new regulation  

requiring Americans to have passports to fly out of the country,  

including to Canada, Mexico and the Carribbean. Applications for  

passports have risen 44 percent between October and March, over the  

same period last year, according to a story in The Washington Post.  

Sixteen production facilities are working overtime, including 24-hour  

days at one center in New Hampshire to help process the 17 million  

documents. Still, there's a 10-week wait for a passport at this point.



Does this, perhaps, help the federal government understand the  

problem with Real ID? Real ID is the law that will require that every  

driver get a new, more secure driver's license. Drivers will be  

required to come into a government office and show documents such as  

birth certificates and Social Security cards to do so. No more of  

this convenient Internet stuff. And you thought lines at the DMV  

branches were bad before? You think lines at the passport office are  

bad?



There are about 300 million people in this country and adult drivers  

make up a very large portion of that. States are expected to  

implement a system to issue Real ID cards by May 2008 -- despite the  

fact that the proposed regulations for doing so weren't issued until  

early this month, even though the legislation was passed in two years  

ago.



The State Department is struggling over a 5 million application  

increase and it's not being asked to do anything new. Just a higher  

volume of the familiar. When it comes to Real ID, some of the  

necessary databases don't even exist. And the numbers of documents  

that will have to be issued far exceeds the number of passports the  

State Department is struggling with.



Does anyone see a problem here?