To authorize the Secretary of State to designate additional persons eligible to serve as passport acceptance agents, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 8234) to authorize the Secretary of State to designate additional persons eligible to serve as passport acceptance agents, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members

may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, millions of Americans use U.S. passports as their official travel documents each year. Passports are what open doors to faraway foreign destinations.

The problem, though, is that certain Americans are having a difficult time applying for them. What should be a simple administrative step is anything but.

That is where my colleague Mr. Mast's bill comes in. H.R. 8234 would level the playing field, assisting those Americans who currently face unnecessary obstacles.

First, the bill would authorize new institutions to serve as passport acceptance agents. Passport acceptance is the process of verifying the applicant's identification documents.

Currently, most civilian passport acceptance is done by designated employees of the U.S. Postal Service. With the recent closure of many U.S. post offices and with fewer post offices offering passport services, however, access points for passport acceptance have been significantly reduced. This reduction has led to delays in some citizens' ability to schedule a passport appointment.

We feel this acutely on Capitol Hill. Scarcely a day goes by when Members of Congress like myself do not hear from frustrated constituents experiencing some sort of passport problem.

Allowing new entities, like public notaries, to become passport acceptance agents will ensure that the citizen application process is easier, faster, and more seamless. For example, if the notaries at all UPS Stores and AAA Travel offices nationwide were to become registered passport acceptance agents, then the number of passport acceptance sites would increase by 10,000 locations.

The second thing this bill would do is assist Americans in rural areas and nonmajor cities apply for their passports. The so-called hand-carry courier program helps citizens who otherwise would be unable to travel to a passport agency due to time, cost, or distance constraints. Through the program, they would be able to secure an urgent or emergency passport using a third-party registered agent.

H.R. 8234 would allow for more companies to participate in the hand- carry program. By expanding the program, we make emergency passports more readily available to citizens who need them, especially for those who don't live in or near a major city.

Finally, Mr. Mast's bill would align a passport's expiration date with the applicant's birthday, making it easier for him or her to remember when it is time to renew. This will help reduce the application spikes surrounding popular travel seasons and prevent new backlogs and delays.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join in supporting H.R. 8234, which is an important step in making passport services more accessible and more reliable, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mast), who is the chair of the Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we need to make passport services more accessible to Americans who don't live in major cities. This bill, H.R. 8234, would actually do that by authorizing new actors like public notaries to serve as passport acceptance agents.

It would also allow more companies to participate in the hand-carry courier program and open up slots for those companies at passport agency offices across the country.

Americans who don't live in major cities shouldn't have to have a harder time getting travel documents than anyone else.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank all of my colleagues for their work and support on H.R. 8234.

It is a bill to reduce the passport barriers that American travelers face with just a few commonsense solutions to help make it a more seamless process for Americans and a more intuitive process for when their passport might expire. It would help prevent the emergency situations that all of us as Members of Congress face for our constituents to get the passports they need.

Getting a passport, for many, is the closest that Americans will get to seeing the work of our State Department, and when they see delays and backlogs, that shakes their confidence in what they believe the State Department and many of our other institutions can do.

The backlog is especially troublesome for our citizens who live in rural areas without easy access to the few passport agencies or centers that we have around the country.

If the State Department can't get those small things done right now in a timely fashion and competent way, then it is hard to convince the American people that the State Department can handle bigger things-- except a passport is not a small thing for most people, most families, and most individuals. For our constituents, that is a business trip, family vacation, wedding, or, God forbid, funeral.

We urgently need reforms to address the passport backlog and prevent any future backlog from occurring.

H.R. 8234 enhances U.S. passport applicants' customer experience in three ways that have been mentioned already.

First, it authorizes the Secretary of State to allow qualified notaries to accept and certify the relevant paperwork. Certify doesn't mean that they are issuing a passport. It means they are identifying that all the t's have been crossed, the i's have been dotted, and the blanks are filled in so that the application doesn't get kicked back by the State Department.

Currently, citizens who live in rural areas need to mail in their paperwork or try to get to a certain employee in a place like the post office. They have few or inconsistent hours to actually go see those individuals, and it delays their application process. By expanding the number of people who can accept and certify the paperwork to include these qualified notaries, we greatly expand the options for Americans who do not live near these passport acceptance centers.

Second, my bill requires the State Department to devote more resources to nontraditional applicants--again, often from rural areas-- who utilize private courier services for emergency passport services. Since 2007, the number of slots these private courier services have to process Americans' applications has decreased, while the number of Americans who live at least 250 miles away from a passport acceptance office has substantially increased over that same period of time.

These services are an effective alternative for Americans who need urgent passports and don't live near those offices, and expanding these resources will help serve the citizens by adjusting to population migration patterns

that we have seen over the last two decades.

Finally, my bill would make it easier for Americans to remember to renew their passports by changing the passport expiration dates to coincide with their birthdays, just like most of us do with our driver's licenses. This simple change in awareness will make it so that many people remember to renew their passports early instead of realizing it at the last second because it is not on an intuitive date, which leads to the surges in applicants in the system and creates those backlogs.

Mr. Speaker, I thank all of my colleagues for their work on this legislation, and I urge adoption of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 8234. As the world has reopened following the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for passports last year skyrocketed, leading to significant delays. Under Secretary of State Antony Blinken's leadership and the tireless efforts of consular officials, the State Department successfully tackled this backlog and restored processing times to prepandemic levels. Moreover, this administration has partnered closely with Congress to advance modernization of the Department's consular processing to be better prepared to handle future surges in demand.

The provisions in H.R. 8234 aim to further strengthen our passport processing infrastructure, particularly to help ensure that all Americans, especially those in rural or remote areas, have reasonably convenient access to passport services. This includes permissive authorities for the Department of State to better enable applicants to utilize private couriers, access passport acceptance agents, and remember to renew their passports before expiry. These provisions can help those in underserved communities who may not have a passport acceptance facility nearby.

There is no single solution to the challenges in providing passport and visa services at a sustained and high level, and the Department's efforts must be driven not by the preferences of courier companies or potential new acceptance agents but by the Americans who need passports.

We must work together and in a smart way to ensure the State Department has the authorities and resources it needs to carry out its mission securely and efficiently with respect to passport processing, and H.R. 8234 can help provide additional practical tools, where and as necessary, to improve service delivery and meet the needs of American travelers.

Therefore, I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for the purpose of closing.

The Department of State's passport application processing has shown welcomed improvement. The bipartisan provisions in this bill would help them make even more progress and connect more Americans to a U.S. passport.

By helping the State Department increase access and meet higher demand, I hope we can prove that the government can adapt and work faster.

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill, and I hope we can advance further measures to support consular services in a bipartisan fashion, and I yield back the balance of my time.