NY House GOP pressuring State Department to unclog ‘completely unacceptable’ US passport backlog
House Republicans are pressuring the State Department to clean up massive passport delays forcing New Yorkers to miss important trips — like their honeymoons — and costing thousands of dollars.
So grim is the outlook that U.S. officials aren’t even denying the problem or predicting when it will ease. They’re blaming the epic wait times on COVID-related staffing shortages and a pause of online processing this year.
That’s left the passport agency flooded with a record-busting 500,000 applications a week – which is 30% to 40% more applicants than 2022.
The high demand to travel is on-track to top last year’s 22 million passports issued, according to federal officials.
“Our offices have collectively fielded hundreds of calls a day from constituents upset with the lack of response to their requests,” wrote six New York GOP lawmakers in a blistering letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken obtained by The Post.
“These completely unacceptable delays have caused our constituents to lose out on the cost of airline fees and vacations, even after some constituents paid an extra fee [of $60] to expedite their application,” Reps. Andrew Garbarino, Michael Lawler, Nick LaLota, Nicole Malliotakis, Anthony D’Esposito and Marc Molinaro fumed in a joint letter.
Congressman LaLota’s office on Long Island reported they’ve helped 500 constituents resolve their passport-related issues since January alone.
“Notably, our offices were recently notified that the New York Passport Agency has four vacant positions with no apparent strategy to mitigate this staffing shortage,” they added.
“Without the proper staffing in place, our constituents who placed requests within the established timeline stand to miss weddings, family vacations, business trips, and more.”
Peter, 31, who lives with his wife in the hamlet of North Babylon, canceled their honeymoon last week because his passport never showed up, he told The Post.
The Queens native lost his document moving to Long Island and filed for a new one on March 29.
He was told the wait would be long, but at the time felt confident that he was at least 15 weeks out from the July 5 departure date to Iceland.
“I probably called somewhere between 60 and 75 times. And I would say nine or 10 of those times I would just get a message: ‘No one available,’” he said, describing his panic in the weeks ahead of the anticipated five-day trip.
The couple decided to call it quits just before the July Fourth holiday – admitting they’d be out $2,200 between flight cancellations and travel agent fees.
Peter told The Post he finally got a call on July 13 notifying him that his passport was on the way.
“Everyone that helped along the way was kind and courteous, but obviously it amounted to nothing.”
A financial planner from Staten Island, Vincent Sica, 48, along with his wife and four kids, applied for passports on March 22 so they could attend a family vacation in the Bahamas on July 27.
“The person in the post office said there was no need to expedite. We were 18 weeks out,” Sica told The Post.
He said in late June he started to get worried, calling the passport agency hotline. “I reached out to them a bunch of times. No help whatsoever.”
“It was stressing my wife out something terrible. The kids were every day asking: did the passports come?’” he said, calculating about $3,000 in nonrefundable trip expenses.
Sica called Malliotakis’ office and a staffer helped him fill out additional forms and received the passports on July 12.
The Department of State did not return an immediate request for comment.
With Post wires
