I’ll be travelling through the foreign country north of my current location in the next couple months, but I didn’t bother with getting a passport as I won’t be flying in. Not that I would have gotten it in time anyway, from what I understand about the wait times, and I’ve been planning this trip since before last Christmas.
So don’t go looking at me when this bill comes due.
The nation’s passport headaches may be easing a bit, but now comes the bill: almost $1 billion.
New travel rules that swamped passport offices and frustrated U.S. travelers this summer will cost the government an estimated $944 million over three years, according to federal paperwork filed Wednesday.
That amount is more than three times the State Department’s estimate for the first three years.
To raise the extra dollars, the department wants to keep a larger share of what U.S. citizens pay to get a passport — $20 of the nearly $100 fee for first-time applicants instead of $6.
Kurtis Cooper, a State Department spokesman, said the new proposal will not increase the cost of passports to the public.
The department initially figured it would cost $289 million between budget years 2006 and 2008 to handle the boost in demand for passports created by post-Sept. 11 security measures passed by Congress and implemented by the Homeland Security Department.
 Now, the passport rules are expected to cost $944 million in budget years 2008 to 2010.
The new cost estimate stunned members of Congress.
“Incompetence and poor planning have not only inflicted high costs and personal angst on consumers, but are now likely to cost the State Department itself an astounding amount,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “Let us hope Homeland Security and the State Department can improve their coordination and avoid egregious mistakes.”
Excuse me, Dipshit Chuckie has been in government far too long and I need to correct that last paragraph right-quick for New York State’s retarded Senior Senator Schumer.
Incompetence and poor planning have not only inflicted high costs and personal angst on consumers, but are now likely to cost the US taxpayer an astounding amount, just as any and all government run programs do.” said Senator Charles “Fucknozzle” Scum-er, D-N.Y.
There we go. I’m feeling much better now that his statement is factually correct.
And what’s the backlog delay turned-into, like 3 months instead of three weeks? And these are the same f*ing idiots that promised an Illegal Alien’s background check would be processed in three days? Yeh right, Government “efficiency” is the biggest threat to freedom…
Fucknozzle is probably the best nickname for Chuckie I’ve heard.