[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5700 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5700

 To direct the Secretary of State to develop and submit to Congress a 
      strategy to improve the processing of passport applications.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 26, 2023

 Ms. Caraveo introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To direct the Secretary of State to develop and submit to Congress a 
      strategy to improve the processing of passport applications.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Assistance for Streamlining 
Travel Passports Act'' or the ``FAST Passports Act''.

SEC. 2. STRATEGY TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION RELATING TO THE PROCESSING OF 
              PASSPORT APPLICATIONS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall develop and submit 
to the relevant congressional committees a strategy to improve the 
processing of passport applications.
    (b) Matters To Be Included.--The strategy required by subsection 
(a) shall, within 360 days after the date of submission of the 
strategy, seek to achieve the following:
            (1) Improve communication within the Department of State, 
        including among all passport agencies and centers, relating to 
        the processing of passport applications.
            (2) Ensure that United states citizens and congressional 
        offices inquiring on behalf of such citizens are able to 
        contact the Department of State, including a passport agency or 
        center, regarding the status of requests for passport 
        applications and receive updates within a reasonably short 
        period of time.
    (c) Relevant Congressional Committees Defined.--In this section, 
the term ``relevant congressional committees'' means the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Foreign Relations of the Senate.
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