Friends,I hope you’re doing well. I wanted to reach out and update you on some work I’ve been doing around passport delays.Over the past couple of weeks, you may have heard about the tremendous backlog in passport processing times. Virginians are waiting twice or three times as long as usual to have their passport renewed. It’s ruining vacations and putting undue stress on many.
While I have a team in my office dedicated to helping Virginians navigate these delays, I also want to address this systemically so these issues stop happening in the first place. I anticipated these issues earlier this year, and sent a letter to the Secretary of State asking what precautions and plans were being put in place to prepare for the summer surge of applications. Despite my warning, issues have persisted, and I have continued pushing for answers. So last week, I stopped at an office that processes passports for Virginians and met with State Department leadership to discuss solutions to address the backlog.
I left with a long list of ideas for how processing centers could increase their capacity, and I’m ready to keep pushing for progress until these delays improve. I’m advocating for the State Department to hire more staff, particularly the most critically needed IT personnel, and increase the expedited processing fees to help pay for it.While we wait for more systemic changes, I encourage you to be proactive if you’re planning international travel. Check your passport and the entry requirements of the country you want to travel to before you book your flights. Give yourself plenty of time if you need a renewal. If you’re in an emergency situation, I encourage you to reach out to my team, who may be able to help. I will absolutely be staying on top of this until this backlog is dealt with.
Sincerely,
"They" cut taxes for the rich and everything is understaffed. This was just piling up, waiting to happen. I got mine in three weeks a year and a half ago, paperwork went from our County Clerk who does that for us in Fort Bend County, Texas. We went Republican last election if that made a difference. Per his weekly newsletter our new Congressman will also take them by person, not himself, to the Passport office if we go through his office.
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Well...I suppose it's possible that the people who take weeks to do simple tasks really are working at their personal best operating speed, and it would take several more of *them* to get their jobs done.
DeleteBut as an independent contractor, how many times I went into an "understaffed" office with "a huge backlog" of tasks and cleaned up the backlog in a week or two. And how funny it was that I just didn't seem to relate to the other people in such an office.
What happens is that at some point a dominant extrovert gets into the office and makes it almost impossible for anyone who works more efficiently than that person does to work there. The office then fills up with people who are good at looking busy and making a five-minute job last all day. They take breaks and go to meetings and build team spirit and don't get any filing, typing, or accounting done.
The bigger the organization, the harder it is to fix this. Adding more bodies to the office does not help.