Senator James Lankford (R-OK) Tuesday sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding action after hearing from an increasing number of Oklahomans who are experiencing tremendous delays in the processing of their passport applications, some of whom paid for expedited processing and delivery for upcoming travel. The backlog of passports has ballooned to an unprecedented level of 2.2 million with expected delays of 4-6 months.

“The State Department’s Passport Service is failing Oklahomans and our nation, and that needs to turn around right now, “ said Lankford. “While many Oklahomans successfully worked remotely during the pandemic, passports sat unprocessed at the State Department for months.

After I pushed to get passport processing up and moving again last year, Secretary Pompeo got it back on track. But under the Biden Administration, it’s worse than ever. Oklahomans now face months-long delays, despite paying more for expedited service. Many passport applicants have only heard ‘radio silence’ from the State Department on their expectations or questions, which has prohibited some Oklahomans from traveling. America is back to work. It is past time for the State Department to also get back to work.”

In June 2020, after initially announcing the discovery on Twitter on May 28, Lankford sent a letter to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to ask why passport applications had not been completed since March 19, 2020—despite continuing to accept paid fees. After Lankford’s inquiry, then-Secretary Pompeo made Passport Services “Mission Critical,” which helped ease some of the backlog, putting the agency on a path to success. However, once the Biden Administration took over, processing times began to lag far behind pre-pandemic levels, primarily due to State Department staff not operating at 100 percent capacity and the failure to fully reopen passport offices to the public. Lankford’s letter outlines eight changes that the Administration should immediately implement in order to remedy this problem and meet the needs of the American people.

In his letter, Lankford wrote, “The current processing time for a routine passport or passport renewal application is 18-24 weeks—nearly four times longer than the typical processing time of 4-6 weeks in the fall of 2020. I have heard from an unusually large number of constituents whose vacations, work trips, and honeymoons were cancelled due to these delays and did not receive adequate assistance from the Department of State, which is totally unacceptable.”