The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 13 voted unanimously to approve legislation that aims to speed up processing times for obtaining U.S. passports through a variety of actions including the application of commercially available technology. […]

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., plans to introduce new legislation that would address the State Department’s passport applications backlog that now stands at over three million, giving the agency more support in its efforts to trim down the backlog. […]

Lawmakers are demanding answers on the backlog of American passport applications – as well as the Online Passport Renewal (OPR) system – being processed by the Department of State in a recent letter to Rita Bitter, assistant secretary for consular affairs at the State Department. […]