[Senate Hearing 118-93]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




                                                         S. Hrg. 118-93

                   STATE DEPARTMENT SERVICES FOR THE
                    AMERICAN PEOPLE: AN OVERVIEW OF
                     CONSULAR AFFAIRS AND PROGRAMS

=======================================================================

                                HEARING


                               BEFORE THE


                     COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
                          UNITED STATES SENATE


                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS


                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________


                              JUNE 7, 2023

                               __________



       Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations 







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                  Available via http://www.govinfo.gov 
                 
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                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 

53-258 PDF                WASHINGTON : 2024 






















                 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS        

             ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey, Chairman        
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland           JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho
JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire          MARCO RUBIO, Florida
CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware         MITT ROMNEY, Utah
CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, Connecticut        PETE RICKETTS, Nebraska
TIM KAINE, Virginia                    RAND PAUL, Kentucky
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                   TODD YOUNG, Indiana
CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey             JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii                   TED CRUZ, Texas
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland             BILL HAGERTY, Tennessee
TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois              TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
                Damian Murphy, Staff Director          
       Christopher M. Socha, Republican Staff Director          
                   John Dutton, Chief Clerk          



                              (ii) 


















                              

  


                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

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                                                                   Page

Menendez, Hon. Robert, U.S. Senator From New Jersey..............     1

Risch, Hon. James E., U.S. Senator From Idaho....................     3

Bitter, Hon. Rena, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of 
  Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC.....     5
    Prepared Statement...........................................     6

              Additional Material Submitted for the Record

Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions Submitted by Senator 
  Jeanne Shaheen.................................................    37

Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions Submitted by Senator 
  Marco Rubio....................................................    39

Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions Submitted by Senator 
  Tim Kaine......................................................    41

Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions Submitted by Senator 
  Todd Young.....................................................    42

Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions Submitted by Senator 
  Bill Hagerty...................................................    43

Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions Submitted by Senator 
  Tammy Duckworth................................................    44

Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions Submitted by Senator 
  Tim Scott......................................................    45

                                 (iii)

  

 
                   STATE DEPARTMENT SERVICES FOR THE 
                    AMERICAN PEOPLE: AN OVERVIEW OF 
                     CONSULAR AFFAIRS AND PROGRAMS 

                              ----------                              


                        WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2023

                                       U.S. Senate,
                            Committee on Foreign Relations,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:01 a.m., in 
room SD-419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Robert 
Menendez presiding.
    Present: Senators Menendez [presiding], Cardin, Murphy, 
Kaine, Merkley, Booker, Schatz, Van Hollen, Risch, Romney, 
Ricketts, and Hagerty.

          OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT MENENDEZ, 
                  U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW JERSEY

    The Chairman. This Senate Foreign Relations Committee 
hearing will come to order.
    When Americans had to be evacuated around the world at the 
start of the COVID pandemic, Consular Affairs officers worked 
day and night to help them get home.
    When grandparents who are nationals of another country want 
to visit their American grandchildren, Consular Affairs 
officers interview them at posts abroad and process their visa 
applications.
    When American citizens like Brittney Griner are detained or 
arrested unjustly abroad, consular officers are often the first 
to visit them in prison, and when my constituents in New Jersey 
and those of every member of this committee need to renew their 
passports, Consular Affairs officers process their 
applications.
    Assistant Secretary Bitter, while I know your team probably 
gets more angry phone calls than any other Foreign Service 
officer, I want to start by saying we do appreciate the work 
that you and all of those who work with you do, often under 
incredibly demanding circumstances.
    For better or for worse, many Americans' only interaction 
with the State Department is getting or renewing a passport, 
leading to some of those frustrating phone calls.
    I do not need to tell you that the current backlog has 
people waiting upwards of 3 months for their passports, not 
even including shipping time.
    In March, Secretary Blinken said you were getting close to 
half a million passport applications a week, putting you on 
track to beat last year's records of processing almost 22 
million passports.
    Even so, my office has been inundated with calls from 
constituents concerned about receiving their passports before 
they travel. Last week, we had nearly 50 open cases helping 
constituents get their passports.
    Whether it is a last-minute family emergency or their first 
international trip since COVID restrictions were lifted, 
Americans should not be experiencing such extended wait times, 
especially during the busy summer travel season.
    I applaud Secretary Blinken's decision to establish a task 
force to speed up wait times. I know that the Department is 
hiring more staff and I know the staff you do have are working 
overtime.
    We need to find out what else we can do to help you achieve 
the goal we all want. What are we doing to improve the online 
passport renewal initiative? I would also like to hear about 
your work processing visas.
    Consular officers--affairs officers in embassies overseas 
are the sole people--sole people--responsible for conducting 
visa interviews. Very often, I am told by individuals, well, 
the ambassadors are--no, the consular officer has the final say 
on what visas are.
    Not only are they often overloaded and work long hours, 
their work is sometimes literally life and death. Take the 
recent success story of Sima Barakzai, an Afghan woman whose 
son served as a combat interpreter helping U.S. special forces 
hunt down the Taliban.
    Following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, she and 
her family were targeted by the new government. They left 
notices at her abandoned home and questioned her neighbors.
    For 2 years, my office worked with Consular Affairs to help 
Sima and her family reach the United States as promised. 
Thankfully, just last week she finally touched down in San 
Francisco after a tumultuous departure from Pakistan.
    There are many more stories, some heroic and some more 
mundane--airlifting someone for medical relief, getting a 
grandmother to her grandchild's baptism or bris, and some more 
practical, helping American businesses get their employees they 
need for success whether hiring for Morey's Piers in New Jersey 
or a data engineer assisting a new startup, making sure 
international students get visas to attend American 
universities in a timely manner.
    Because in addition to the billions of dollars these 
students bring to our communities, they also enrich the fabric 
of our nation.
    I know you have been under strain and I want to hear what, 
if any, additional resources or assistance you need to continue 
to provide these vital services.
    We have to ensure that the United States remains the top 
destination for the world's smartest brains and hardest workers 
and we need to make sure we keep our nation's promises not only 
to those who served with our soldiers and our diplomatic 
officers, but to those wrongfully detained Americans who 
deserve regular consular access.
    Putin's government has twice now refused consular access to 
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. That is simply 
unacceptable and, Assistant Secretary Bitter, I urge you and 
the State Department to keep pushing Moscow on this point.
    I will just close. I often get calls on a Thursday that 
says, ``I just looked at my passport and I need to travel to a 
wedding on Sunday,'' and I say, ``well, I am not Houdini.''
    We try to help and your New York office, by the way, is 
incredibly, incredibly tremendous work effort that they have 
and very helpful, but we actually held a press conference, a 
workshop, Look Before You Leave, so that people look at their 
passports well before they are thinking of traveling and find 
out whether or not they are in need of a new passport because 
you need--not only does it have to be still valid, but it has 
to be valid for at least 6 months beyond. Most people do not 
know that and so we work all the time trying to make that case 
back at home.
    I appreciate the work that you do. We just want to see how 
we make it all do better. A better sense of all the good the 
Consular Affairs does for the country is part of what I hope 
the hearing to be, but also to determine how we can do better.
    With that, let me turn to the distinguished ranking member 
for his remarks.

               STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES E. RISCH, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM IDAHO

    Senator Risch. Thank you, Assistant Secretary Bitter, for 
being here today. Mr. Chairman, I get those calls too, but 
usually it is at 4 o'clock on Friday afternoon, not on 
Thursdays. Thursday is a luxury.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Risch. In any event, thank you for the important 
work you do and it is critically important for a vast swath of 
Americans who partake of these services.
    At the request of the Department, when I was overseas I 
actually sat in on some of the interviews that the frontline 
people over there do when they are issuing visas and I was 
incredibly impressed with their ability and the efficiency and 
respect that they carry out their job and I really appreciate 
that.
    Having said that, Americans have been struggling to get 
passports for years now and waiting weeks longer than they did 
before the pandemic, as the chairman has pointed out.
    Foreigners have to wait months, sometimes years, to visit 
the United States. These delays directly hurt American 
industry, slow economic growth, and delay reuniting families.
    This is especially true in my state of Idaho where major 
manufacturers like Micron Technology have trouble getting visas 
for workers who are desperately needed to stay ahead of their 
competition, or our farmers who have problems getting visas for 
seasonal ag workers and our world-class resorts have trouble 
attracting tourists who cannot get visas to vacation in Idaho, 
and as the chairman has referred to, and I am sure every member 
of this committee has dealt with, calls from constituents to 
help in that regard.
    I understand there was a backlog that developed during 
COVID and the Department is still digging out, but let us be 
clear. The Department time and time again has failed to plan 
for the crisis and instead becomes a victim. This needs to 
change.
    Given all of this, I was particularly frustrated when I 
watched the evacuation from Sudan, and Sudan was not the first 
problem I have had with State Department evacuations. I was, as 
a lot of people, were horrified by the catastrophic evacuation 
of Afghanistan.
    Our evacuation in Kyiv also left much to be desired, 
particularly in terms of getting people back in when we opened 
up. If I sound a little frustrated, it is because I am.
    A hearing like this should be about highlighting the great 
work that the State Department does to serve the American 
people. Every American gets their passport from the State 
Department.
    Every American whose family member needed a visa to be 
reunited with a loved one must work with the State Department. 
Every American adopting a child internationally or, 
alternatively, who is fighting to bring a parentally abducted 
child back home must go through State.
    The same office, the Office of Children's Issues, serves 
both of these purposes, but woefully continues to miss the mark 
in true service to Americans.
    When Americans get in trouble abroad, it is the State 
Department that should be there to help and we often contact 
them to do so.
    To be clear, there is much to celebrate in the Bureau of 
Consular Affairs and more broadly with our hardworking consular 
officers working across the world.
    However, I am afraid the problems right now currently 
outweigh the successes and the cheerleading regarding the 
service must be tempered as we said here now by the reality on 
the ground today.
    With that, again, thank you for being here. We are anxious 
to hear how you are going to fix all this. Thank you.
    Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    The Chairman. Our witness today is Assistant Secretary Rena 
Bitter, who prior to assuming her role in August of 2021, was 
the dean of the Leadership and Management School at the Foreign 
Service Institute. In addition, she has served from 2016 to 
2020 as the U.S. Ambassador to the Lao People's Democratic 
Republic.
    Her Washington experience includes tours in the executive 
secretariat, special assistant to Secretary of State Colin 
Powell, director of the State Department Operations Center.
    She has served overseas as counsel general in Ho Chi Minh 
City, consulate chief in Amman, Jordan and nonimmigrant visa 
chief in London, as well as tours in Bogota and Mexico City. 
She is a career Senior Foreign Service officer and joined the 
State Department in 1994.
    We thank you for your service. We thank you for appearing 
here today. Your full statement will be included in the record, 
without objection.
    I would ask you to summarize it in about 5 minutes or so 
because there is a fair amount of member interest who want to 
have a conversation with you.
    Madam Secretary, you are free to start.

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE RENA BITTER, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF 
 STATE, BUREAU OF CONSULAR AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 
                         WASHINGTON, DC

    Ms. Bitter. Thank you very much, and thank you, Chairman 
Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, and esteemed members of the 
committee.
    Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the work of the 
State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs and to express my 
appreciation for the support that we receive from members of 
Congress and your staff.
    The last time I had the opportunity to appear before this 
committee was at my confirmation hearing and at that time I 
called the people of the Bureau of Consular Affairs the truest 
of public servants, working under sometimes very difficult 
conditions on behalf of the American people, and after leading 
the bureau for 2 years, my admiration has only grown and it is 
a tremendous honor for me to be here today to directly 
represent the work of my colleagues.
    The 13,000 people of the Bureau of Consular Affairs serve 
your constituents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all across the 
United States and the globe.
    Mr. Chairman, in 2022, thanks to the efforts of our 
consular teams overseas, more than 18,000 international 
students studied in New Jersey, contributing over $700 million 
to your state's economy and supporting more than 7,000 New 
Jersey jobs.
    Ranking Member Risch, last fiscal year we issued nearly 
6,000 visas to temporary workers, including agricultural 
workers filling critical labor shortages for Idaho ranchers, 
farms, and businesses.
    Around the world, consular officers are protecting the 
lives and serving the interests of U.S. citizens and 
safeguarding our national security. They are present for your 
constituents' best and worst moments--births, deaths, 
adoptions, and illness. They worked in-person both domestically 
and overseas during the pandemic to keep serving the public at 
great personal peril.
    Just last month, I attended a ceremony at the Department to 
honor Tom Wallace, a consular officer who helped U.S. citizens 
repatriate from Peru back to the United States in the early 
days of the COVID-19 pandemic before losing his life to COVID-
19. His name deserves a place in the congressional record.
    When I have the opportunity to travel to our 29 passport 
agencies and centers and more than 240 overseas posts to meet 
directly with these extraordinary teams, I highlight three key 
priorities for the bureau, all of which I look forward to 
talking about today.
    First, the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. 
As I mentioned earlier, this is the bureau and the Department's 
highest priority. Diplomats have been working to protect the 
lives and vital interests of U.S. citizens abroad since before 
the United States had a constitution. It is our highest and 
most enduring purpose.
    Most recently in Sudan, we evacuated more than 2,000 U.S. 
citizens and their family members, along with lawful permanent 
residents, locally employed staff, nationals from allied and 
partner countries in a complex multinational effort.
    Second, we are focused on maintaining record productivity 
in the face of unprecedented passport and visa demand. Demand 
for both U.S. passports and visas to the United States are at 
all-time highs.
    At the same time right now more people than ever before 
have the ability to travel to and from the United States. 
Forty-six percent of Americans today have passports, up from 30 
percent in 2008 and just 5 percent in 1990.
    On the inbound travel side, more than 50 million valid 
visas are in the hands of foreign travelers. More people can 
visit the United States today than at any time in our history. 
These numbers are only growing and the Bureau of Consular 
Affairs is committed to meeting the demand today and in the 
future while rigorously safeguarding our national security.
    While we remain focused on addressing historically high 
demand for passport and visa services, we are also planning for 
a more agile optimized future. To that end, our third priority 
is modernizing consular systems and technology.
    For example, before the end of the year, 5 million 
Americans will be able to renew their passports entirely 
online, a major milestone in fulfilling our federal customer 
service goals.
    We cannot make meaningful progress on these priority areas 
without sustained and significant investments in our IT 
infrastructure and staff. I am grateful for Congress' 
partnership during the darkest days of the pandemic when our 
fee-funded bureau took a sudden 50 percent decline in revenue.
    Your appropriation and authorization to use consular 
revenue more flexibly has been the most important factor on our 
road to building a Bureau of Consular Affairs that is ready to 
tackle the challenges of the 21st century.
    Making these flexible authorities permanent would ensure 
that we are able to weather any future contingency.
    I thank you again for your continued partnership and I look 
forward to our discussion here today. Thank you very much.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Bitter follows:]

                 Prepared Statement of Ms. Rena Bitter 

    Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, and other esteemed members 
of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the work of 
the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs and to express my 
appreciation for the support we receive from Members of Congress and 
staff for our mission. Of all the State Department's bureaus, the 
Bureau of Consular Affairs has a unique nexus with our colleagues in 
the legislative branch. We are the State Department bureau responsible 
for providing public-facing and customer-centric services for the 
American people, and as such we consider your constituents to be our 
constituents.
    The public servants performing consular work operate in more than 
240 overseas posts and 29 domestic passport agencies and centers. These 
dedicated staff are focused on several top priorities that serve and 
protect our people and country. I would like to highlight four of those 
priorities today as a baseline for our discussion.
        priority: safety and security of u.s. citizens overseas
    Our first priority has remained the same since the earliest days of 
our Republic: to protect the lives and serve the interests of U.S. 
citizens abroad.
    Last month, Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland detailed 
before this Committee our most recent efforts to assist U.S. citizens 
impacted by the violence in Sudan. Through this effort, and in close 
coordination with our allies and partners, we evacuated more than 2,000 
U.S. citizens and their family members, along with U.S. lawful 
permanent residents, locally employed staff, and nationals from allied 
and partner countries. This was a complex and very successful 
multinational effort under the most difficult circumstances, and a 
high-profile illustration of the lengths our consular officers and 
local staff go to serve Americans overseas.
    Across the globe, we serve our fellow citizens during some of their 
most important moments--births, adoptions, medical emergencies, deaths, 
arrests, and disasters. Thousands of U.S. citizens are arrested 
overseas each year, and consular officers help these detained citizens 
by ensuring they receive adequate medical care and fair treatment under 
foreign country standards and by facilitating communication between the 
citizen and their family. Consistent with the Levinson Act, Embassies 
and Consulates overseas continuously review all U.S. citizen arrest 
cases for indicators of wrongfulness and work with our offices in 
Washington to make these determinations when warranted.
           priority: maintaining record productivity in the 
             face of unprecedented passport and visa demand
    Demand for both U.S. passports and visas to the United States are 
at all-time highs. At the same time, due to the historic work of the 
Bureau of Consular Affairs, right now more people than ever before have 
the ability to travel to and from the United States. Forty-six percent 
of Americans have passports, up from 30 percent in 2008--and 5 percent 
in 1990. On the inbound travel side, in addition to the citizens of 
more than 40 visa waiver countries, more than 49 million still-valid 
visitor visas and border crossing cards are currently held by potential 
travelers to the United States who are free to visit this country. In 
fact, more foreign visitors have the ability to travel to the United 
States today than at any time in our history. These numbers are only 
growing, and the Bureau of Consular Affairs is meeting the demand.
    In Fiscal Year 2022, we issued a record 22 million passport books 
and cards. We are on track to surpass that achievement in Fiscal Year 
2023. Our focus is on ensuring all qualified U.S. citizen applicants 
can be travel-ready, and for millions of Americans to hold the most 
modern, secure, and durable U.S. passport book--the Next Generation 
Passport, which was fully rolled out in 2022.While our previous 
electronic passports (ePassports) are secure, the Next Generation 
Passport book uses new technologies to produce a more robust passport 
with enhanced security features, such as a polycarbonate data page, 
laser-engraved personalization, and updated artwork.
    The Bureau and State Department have taken extraordinary measures 
to meet the current U.S. passport demand: we instituted an ``all hands 
on deck'' posture, and since January 1, we have authorized between 
30,000 and 40,000 overtime hours per month for direct-hire personnel at 
our passport agencies and centers. In addition to our agency and center 
staff, who have been working full-time in the office since the summer 
of 2020, we have recruited volunteers, including State Department 
retirees, and assigned new Foreign Service Officers to work in 
Washington, DC's Satellite Office. As a result, we issued 5.4 percent 
more passports and cards in the first 5 months of this fiscal year 
compared the same period in FY 2022's record-breaking year. While we 
increased our adjudicative staff--10 percent in the last year alone, 
with more in the hiring pipeline--our estimates show it will require 
many more passport specialist positions to manage the unprecedented 
increase in workload. In our FY 2024 Consular and Border Security 
Programs budget request, you will note the most significant increase is 
to our salaries budget, where almost $100 million will allow us to fill 
vacancies left over from the pandemic and add nearly 300 new positions 
throughout the Bureau of Consular Affairs.
    Our current routine passport processing time--10-13 weeks--is an 
accurate reflection of current demand levels and is a timeframe we 
publicize widely. We anticipate no increase to current processing 
timeframes through the end of the fiscal year, allowing Americans to 
plan accordingly for their international travel. We are committed to 
keeping our customers, and you, informed.
    In parallel, we are also experiencing pent-up demand for U.S. visas 
resulting from the near shutdown of international travel during the 
height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In some ways a distant memory, U.S. 
and foreign restrictions constrained our processing levels for 2 years 
or more before those restrictions were lifted. The pandemic and 
contemporaneous budget shortfalls left many posts significantly 
understaffed. Thanks to expanded expenditure authorities along with 
supplemental funding provided by the Congress, we were able to lift 
hiring freezes that had been in place until late 2021. It takes time to 
onboard and train new staff for these national security positions and, 
working with other bureaus in the Department, we are leveraging those 
authorities to increase substantially the number of consular 
adjudicator positions filled in FY 2023 and to continue that trend into 
FY 2024, budget permitting.
    Since the United States re-opened for travel, the State Department 
has streamlined visa processing and dedicated more resources to 
reducing wait times, consistent with national security. These efforts 
include surging staff overseas to adjudicate visa applications, working 
with DHS to exercise interview waiver authorities for low-risk visa 
applicants, and expanding the development and use of IT solutions to 
take advantage of capacity wherever it exists.
    I want to emphasize we undertook these efforts without any 
compromise to national security or our obligations to review 
appropriately all visa applications. As a result of these efforts and 
tremendous productivity from our teams overseas, the Department has 
issued 22 percent more nonimmigrant visas over the same period in pre-
pandemic 2019. While appointment wait times for visitor visa interviews 
remain higher than we would like in a few high-demand countries, we 
have reduced them substantially in recent months, and we are issuing 
more visitor visas in these high-demand countries now than we did 
before the pandemic. Fiscal year to date, we have issued more than 1 
million additional nonimmigrant visas in our top four visa processing 
missions alone than during the same period in FY 2019--a 57 percent 
increase.
         priority: modernizing consular systems and technology
    While we remain focused on addressing passport and visa backlogs, 
we are also planning for a more agile, optimized future of consular 
processing. For example, our goal is that before the end of the year, 
eligible Americans will be able to renew their passports entirely 
online, a major milestone in fulfillment of our federal customer 
service goals. To that end, we concluded a successful pilot of the 
Online Passport Renewal program in March, which allowed us to take 
lessons learned and refine the system for the upcoming public launch.
    We cannot make these enhancements without sustained and significant 
investments in our IT infrastructure and staff. The commitment and 
responsibility of the Bureau of Consular Affairs is to maintain and 
implement the highest cybersecurity standards and to recruit and retain 
the staff capable of doing so.
    To achieve this, the Consular and Border Security Programs FY 2024 
request of $4.5 billion is the largest request we have ever made. It 
will allow us to respond to the highest demand for passport services in 
history and the pent-up demand for visa adjudications, while supporting 
our efforts to modernize complex IT systems that were built more than 
20 years ago.
    We continue to need expanded expenditure authorities for consular 
fees along the lines of those granted at the height of the pandemic. 
These authorities allow us to direct resources where they need to go to 
respond to emerging challenges and unexpected fluctuations in demand. 
We have been able to use fees from surging passport demand to cover 
U.S. citizens services costs, not only for complex crises such as in 
Sudan, but also for more routine crises facing the traveling public, 
such as administering the repatriation loan program for destitute U.S. 
citizens stranded overseas. They also allow us to manage unexpected 
fluctuations in demand, including by using the fees to hire additional 
officers for surging workloads.
                priority: the people of consular affairs
    The final priority I highlight when I visit our teams throughout 
the bureau is our people themselves. The 13,000 foreign affairs 
professionals in the Bureau of Consular Affairs are the truest public 
servants I have ever known. They are present for our constituents' best 
and worst moments--births, deaths, adoptions, illness, and destitution. 
They serve America and Americans directly, and often do so in 
incredibly difficult circumstances. They worked in person both 
domestically and overseas during the pandemic to keep serving the 
public, and the death toll among our consular colleagues was 
significant. Whatever you see in world news each day--earthquakes, 
plane crashes, collapsed buildings--you can rest assured our consular 
colleagues are there to assist impacted U.S. citizens.
    This includes, crucially, our locally-employed colleagues around 
the world, who are not only present to assist Americans in these 
crises, but also often are living through them personally. They are the 
institutional knowledge and lifeblood of our operations and we 
appreciate the attention of Members of Congress, including on this 
committee, to finding a legislative fix to allow those staff with 
qualifying, faithful service to immigrate to the United States without 
delay.
    This country has had officials overseas protecting Americans since 
before it had a constitution. In fact, this responsibility is the 
reason we have missions overseas, and it is our most important shared 
responsibility. It is an honor to lead this bureau and to engage 
further in discussion with you on the issues that affect us and the 
public we all serve.

    The Chairman. Thank you. We will start a round of 5-minute 
questions.
    As you know, back in April I highlighted in a letter to you 
long delays that New Jerseyans and Americans were facing to 
renew their passports and encouraging to work to bring their 
timeframe down, but some of my constituents have been shocked 
to learn that they still have to wait at least 3 months to get 
their passport renewed.
    What news can you give us and Americans across the country 
who may be watching this hearing about the status of how long 
it is going to take to process a passport?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for the question. I appreciate the 
opportunity to address it.
    We are working very hard on all fronts to meet what is 
absolutely unprecedented demand. Last year we issued a record 
22 million passport books and cards and this year we are on 
track to exceed that record maybe by as much as 15 percent.
    As a result, processing times for passports are longer than 
we would like. We work very hard and in coordination with your 
staffs for which we are very grateful to publicize these times 
widely to help travelers plan--to make their travel plans.
    I can talk a little bit about what we are doing to manage 
this demand. Obviously, our hard-working passport teams are on 
the front lines of this issue at our 29 agencies and centers. 
They are working tens of thousands of overtime hours, 170,000 
just since the beginning of the year.
    We are also aggressively hiring to augment the team. We 
have increased our staff by 10 percent this year and we have 
about 10 percent more in the pipeline.
    We have teams of volunteers from across the Department 
working on surge teams, including retirees, adjudicators from--
who have retired, and volunteers from our own headquarters 
staff, as well as new officers who adjudicate passports before 
they head out to their assignments.
    The Chairman. How long is the backlog now?
    Ms. Bitter. It takes about 10-13 weeks for regular 
processing time for a passport.
    The Chairman. When would you expect to have it cleared up?
    Ms. Bitter. The 10-13 weeks is an accurate representation 
of what it is taking us now to process passports. We do not 
anticipate raising that this year at all. Passport demand tends 
to be seasonal. I am reluctant to make predictions because this 
year is----
    The Chairman. Do you have a backlog?
    Ms. Bitter. What we have is passports waiting to be 
adjudicated. The processing time is a result of truly 
unprecedented demand.
    The Chairman. You are saying that after the pandemic, the 
backlog that got created by that and all that, that is cleared? 
It is just that the regular normal time for processing a 
passport is 13 weeks?
    Ms. Bitter. I can explain. If you do not mind, I can 
contextualize a little bit that question and it has to do a 
little bit with staffing and it is not unrelated to the 
pandemic.
    When the pandemic hit and we lost 50 percent of our revenue 
overnight, we were--thanks to appropriations, we did not have 
to fire people, but we did have to freeze positions. Our 
passport adjudicators were working in-person and during that 
time period they worked in-person all through the pandemic.
    As you know, not everybody is able to do that and our staff 
contracted during that period. When passport demand came back 
and we were able to start hiring people, we were working from a 
deficit.
    Really, what we are dealing with is pent-up demand from the 
pandemic. When travel returned in late 2021, people were ready 
to travel again.
    Our staff--it takes just a while to hire them, it takes a 
while to bring them on, and we also needed to wait for passport 
revenue to come back before we even had the funds to hire them. 
We are 10 percent up this year and we have 10 percent in the 
pipeline now.
    The Chairman. I appreciate all that, but I think you failed 
to understand my question. Is the answer to this question that 
it is now going to take 13 weeks on average to expect to get 
your passport processed, yes or no?
    Ms. Bitter. Into the future, we do not intend for that to 
be the permanent wait time. You will see in our----
    The Chairman. The future is very infinite.
    Ms. Bitter. Unpredictable.
    The Chairman. The future being in 2 months, in 6 months, in 
a year? I am trying to--from my perspective, my role here is 
not to be adversarial, but I also need to understand in order 
to help, and I do not quite get from your answer what it is 
that is necessary.
    It is not--let me take this position. It is not acceptable 
to wait 13 months--I mean, 13 weeks or 3 months for a United 
States citizen to get a passport. We have to do better.
    The question is what is it that we need in order to do 
better. If that is additional staffing, if that is additional 
resources, if--I do not know what it is, but I am trying to 
glean that from you. I got everything you said. I appreciate 
the past. I appreciate the backlog. I appreciate the pandemic 
consequences.
    That does not tell me how we are going to stop 13 weeks 
being the norm and then what timeframe we can do that. One--I 
have a lot of questions, but I am going to turn to my 
colleagues. One is, what do you need to bring that 13 weeks 
dramatically down? Two, assuming you get that, how long will it 
take to bring it down?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for clarifying your question, 
Senator.
    What you will see in our 2023 ops plan and also our fiscal 
year 2024 budget is requests for more staffing. That is one 
thing that--that is one way that we are going to address it.
    We do not want to go into the future trying to hire and 
overtime our way out of these challenges. I mentioned the 
increase in percentage of Americans who have passports because 
we do not see this as an anomaly. We see this as a trend.
    The way that we would like to address it into the future is 
by bringing on more staff so we can handle this and also 
investing in our technology and modernizing our processes.
    The Chairman. Is the request in the budget, assuming it is 
granted, going to now significantly reduce the wait time? What 
do you think is the right wait time for an American to wait for 
a passport?
    Ms. Bitter. Senator, I agree with you that our wait times 
right now are too long. I would have to----
    The Chairman. Is the budget request going to ultimately 
help you reduce that significantly?
    Ms. Bitter. Over the long term, we anticipate that this is 
a trend that we are going to have to address and it will--if we 
can hire the people that we need to address these long-term 
challenges and improve our technology.
    The Chairman. I will come back to you.
    Senator Risch.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you.
    Senator Risch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I concur with the chairman here. We certainly do not want 
to be hostile here. This is not a partisan issue, obviously. 
This is an American issue. We are all in this together trying 
to get it done.
    Trying to drill down, the chairman was trying to get at how 
long the people should have to wait. Do you have a goal? Is 
there a stated goal that if somebody in New Jersey or Idaho or 
Utah or wherever----
    Senator Ricketts. Nebraska.
    Senator Risch. Nebraska. Do not forget Nebraska.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Risch. Do they get the--do they have----
    Senator Ricketts. Yes, we have passports. Yes.
    Senator Risch. All right. Anyway, what should they--what 
should be a reasonable expectation on a person's part? Forget 
everything else. Just from your experience, what should be--is 
it something like 2 weeks or 3 weeks? Or what should the 
expectation be?
    Ms. Bitter. It is a little bit hard for me to answer that 
question. What we do is we try to give the American public an 
accurate--just an accurate picture of how long it will take so 
that they can plan their travel and so that they do not make 
plans without checking their passport.
    Senator Risch. When you give those expectations to the 
American public, what is that expectation? That is what we are 
after. What are you giving to the American public as that 
expectation?
    Ms. Bitter. The expectation right now is the processing 
time is 10-13 weeks, and I know that you are trying to get at 
what is our goal, what is reasonable----
    Senator Risch. Sure.
    Ms. Bitter. --what is shortest number, and I--what I would 
like to do is check and see what it was before the pandemic, 
but I will say that passport demand is seasonal and there are 
times during the year where it is higher and times during the 
year where it is lower, and we have consistently and 
historically let American citizens know how long our processing 
takes.
    I think the challenge that we are facing now and that we 
hear from your constituents and we hear very clearly from you--
--
    Senator Risch. So do we.
    Ms. Bitter. I know. Is that the timing--we have an 
overwhelming demand right now and so in giving an accurate 
portrait of the travel time, it is just more than people are 
expecting.
    Senator Risch. I think one thing that might be helpful is I 
find when somebody calls in and I chat with them, they are 
totally taken aback at how long it takes and they are--they 
say, well, we did not hear anything about this and I think that 
is a fair statement by them in that I know the Department wants 
to get the word out. You certainly do.
    Now, maybe you ought to do it in public service 
announcements or something, but there needs to be a better 
penetration into the American public psyche about how long it 
takes for the passports.
    Those of us that move in these kind of circles, we 
understand this, but the average person who maybe goes to 
Europe once in their life and needs a passport, they do not 
think about it until it becomes a problem. Maybe some 
penetration there would help, and I understand you still--you 
are getting over the backlog. I get that, but in any event, I 
think it is going to take more, there is no question about it.
    I appreciate your comment about the 6,000 work visas for 
Idahoans, but that is a drop in the bucket with--we are 2 
million people and there is a lot more need there.
    I only got a short time left, but a lot of us were very 
concerned about what happened in Sudan. As you know, there was 
considerable criticism for the State Department in how that was 
handled.
    Can you give us a thumbnail executive summary of what you 
think went wrong there? Admittedly, some things went right, but 
nobody focuses on that. They focus on what went wrong. That is 
what I want to hear about.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you. I appreciate your asking the 
question. It was a very difficult situation in Sudan, as I 
think that you know.
    Senator Risch. Has been for a long time.
    Ms. Bitter. Right. We have--I appreciate your mentioning 
that. We have been advising Americans not to go to Sudan for a 
long time and, in fact, if they were there, to leave. The 
situation evolved very, very quickly.
    What I will say about this evacuation is that it was really 
a true multinational effort and it assured the safe departure 
of 2,000 American citizens, family members, and others as well 
as thousands of nationals of other countries.
    We facilitated, I think, as you know, three overland 
convoys and we also worked with our partners and allies to make 
sure that U.S. citizens were able to access allied flights that 
went out of the airport.
    It took considerable diplomatic effort to make sure that we 
were able to conduct these evacuations and able to make the 
airport safe so that American citizens could leave that way 
with the assistance of our partners and allies.
    Whether--again, it was an unusual situation that it was 
really truly multinational and so whether an American citizen 
left on a flight that had a British flag on it or a French flag 
on it, they helped with--they left with the assistance of the 
United States Government and the facilitation of our task force 
and our folks on the ground.
    I want to highlight one thing that I think is important. 
Our land convoys are really, really important for American 
citizens. I know that you are aware that American citizens 
often are closely related to non-American citizens and that is 
why in many instances, even though we advise American citizens 
to leave, it is really difficult for them to do so because they 
do not want to leave extended family members or even close 
family members who might not be documented for onward travel to 
the United States.
    The convoys really helped those people to get to safety 
from Khartoum to Port Sudan and they might not have been able 
to leave otherwise. It might have been difficult for them to 
get on flights that would have to land in a third country.
    It was a really important tool for us and also for our 
partners and allies.
    Senator Risch. Thank you. My time is up.
    Just let me say one of the things my staff has been after, 
as you know, trying to get your input as to what plans you have 
for future situations like this that happened in the area. We 
have not gotten that yet. I hope you will double your efforts 
to get back to them on those inquiries.
    Thank you.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Cardin [presiding]. Thrilled to call Senator 
Romney.
    Senator Romney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I appreciate the work that you do. It is not an easy task 
by any means. I would note that in this day and age I think it 
is unreasonable to expect Americans to think it is going to 
take them months to get a passport, particularly a passport 
renewal, because they can--if they apply for a credit card 
where they are going to get thousands of dollars of credit from 
a bank, they can get the card in days and, yet, an American 
citizen who has had a passport for 50 years can wait months and 
months to get a passport.
    It just does not make sense. I think we may need to adjust 
our--what the requirements are to get a renewal, what the 
technology is that we use to make that happen.
    I would also note that my home state of Utah is, if not the 
fastest growing state in America, close to the fastest growing 
state in America. The demand for consular services is enormous 
in part because of the commerce there, but also because we have 
thousands upon thousands, some 50,000 missionaries, leaving 
from Salt Lake City every year, and the Mountain West region 
and particularly Salt Lake City is in what I will call a 
passport service desert.
    The nearest passport agencies are--which are required for 
in-person visits are some 8 hours away. We have--I listened to 
the chairman indicate that in New Jersey, the population--how 
big is New Jersey, 10 million?
    The Chairman. Nine million.
    Senator Romney. Nine million. My state is one-third that 
size and yet we have 200 people right now that are working 
through my office for emergency help.
    We have four people in our office that are doing nothing 
besides emergency passport requests and the number of concerns 
we have is an enormous list. I would encourage you to fulfill 
the legal responsibility and the law that was passed the last 
year asking for the State Department to report on the 
geographic diversity and accessibility of passport agencies.
    That is due in a couple of weeks and I expect that you will 
be able to perform that as required by law and I know that you 
are anxious to make that happen.
    I would also hope that there is a way to increase staffing. 
Perhaps--I would like to build offices with a physical 
presence, but perhaps at least pilot projects of some kind that 
allow us to have individuals surged in areas like Salt Lake 
City or somewhere in the Intermountain West, Boise or wherever, 
where we can get services for people in the Intermountain West 
without having to drive as many as 8 hours for the needs for 
in-person views.
    I would also note that in places like Israel I thought it 
was interesting when they do the homeland security checks for 
Israel, they ask medical students, law students, people 
receiving student loans, to surge capacity to do interviews, 
and I do not know what the opportunity is at the State 
Department to say we have got a lot of kids getting loans. We 
have got people in medical school. We have got people in law 
school. We could have them come in for summer work.
    If you have surges in the summer or the spring, train them, 
qualify them, pay them, bring them in and have them help do 
some of the work that you are doing.
    I would note that this--I would expect the surge to 
continue to grow with the Paris Olympics next year. People are 
going to be wanting to go to the Olympics, wanting to go to 
Paris and, like most Americans, they think that if they got 3 
or 4 weeks before they go that they ought be able to get their 
passport renewed and they do not realize it is going to take 13 
weeks because that is not the way anything else in America 
works. It is only dealing with government that things take this 
long, and so we basically have to get government to act more 
like some of the services we receive in the private sector.
    Finally, I would ask that if you have data that you look at 
to see how you are doing--average length of time for a renewal, 
average length of time for a first time passport, percentage of 
people who cannot get their passport within that average, how 
many are above, how long the delays are--if you have data of 
that nature, I would love to see it.
    I request that you provide it to this committee so that we 
can actually measure how we are doing. I am sure you have that 
and you are able to look at it, how many applications you 
received.
    Can we get granular data from you on how this system is 
working? I think we desperately need it and hope that you will 
be able, one, to report on the progress towards a regional 
assessment of our needs, but, two, information on how well we 
are performing.
    I know I did not get a question in there. I had a lot I 
wanted to say and I think--I see you nodding so I am assuming 
you find those things to be acceptable. Is that right?
    Ms. Bitter. Absolutely. May I respond just very briefly?
    Senator Romney. You may, but I want to add one more----
    Ms. Bitter. Yes, please.
    Senator Romney. --one more small thing. I will not ask the 
audience this. If my passport says it is going to expire in 6 
months, I would expect if I was going to leave, let us say, 
when it has got 3 months left that I could go to Mexico and 
come back.
    I think every American I know is shocked to find out that 
when your passport expires in 6 months, that you cannot leave--
that you cannot leave the country. You have to include on the 
passport some kind of notice that says you may not leave the 
country if the passport expires within 6 months. It may just be 
to some countries, but, gosh, this is one of the reasons we 
have this huge backlog with emergency services. I am sorry.
    Ms. Bitter. No, I really appreciate it and I appreciate the 
feedback, and I think people are surprised by the 6-month 
requirement that a lot of countries have. It is something that 
we include in our outreach, but clearly it is really hard to 
penetrate. When people are not thinking about----
    Senator Romney. Put a sticker on the passport that says 
this will not be valid going into many countries if your 
passport expires in 6 months.
    Ms. Bitter. Yes. We have QR codes that lead to our public 
information, but you are right, that is something very much 
that should be highlighted in particular because it is really 
surprising.
    I also just want to briefly highlight a couple of things, 
and thank you for raising the issue of geographic diversity of 
our passport agencies. It is something we really monitor a lot. 
We collect a lot of data on it.
    I can throw out statistics at you, which will be 
unsatisfying, but we think that the best way for us to be able 
to serve the American public is through modernizing our systems 
and being able to surge our hiring.
    It is really only about 5 percent of Americans who need 
access to emergency services for passports and we do have 
procedures in place and we work very hard including with all of 
your staffs for which we are enormously grateful to make sure 
that we are aware of those cases and they are drawn to our 
attention.
    Sir, if there are cases in Salt Lake City that you need us 
to be aware of, we would really be grateful if you could set us 
up for success and let us know.
    The one other thing I want to say and it is really true, 
hiring--we have increased our staff 10 percent this year and we 
have more in the pipeline. These are national security--every 
passport is a national security decision and bringing folks on 
in these positions--hiring, training, clearing, and making sure 
that they are suitable to have this really challenging job with 
a great deal of responsibility--does take time and it is 
something that we are working at very, very closely.
    We are grateful, really grateful, to the support--for the 
support of Congress in expanding our spending authorities and 
allowing us to be able to move funding more flexibly to be able 
to continue that hiring. I want to end with thanks not just for 
the feedback, but also for all of the support.
    The Chairman [presiding]. Just two final notes.
    Fifty is the present backlog. We have a continuous process 
of closing them successfully at many. If I were to say, how 
many do we get over the course of a year, probably over a 
thousand, but 15 percent of----
    Senator Romney. I think 200 was just right now.
    The Chairman. Yes. Fifteen percent of the American people 
who may need emergency services. Is that what you said, 15 
percent?
    Ms. Bitter. I am sorry, sir. It was 5 percent, if I was not 
clear.
    The Chairman. Five percent. I am sorry. Five percent--I was 
calculating--is about 15 million people. That is still a lot of 
people.
    Senator Ricketts.
    Senator Ricketts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Assistant 
Secretary Bitter, first of all, thank you very much for your 
service to our country and your long career in the Foreign 
Service.
    I want you to know that I walked into this committee 
hearing sympathetic because I ran a business that experienced 
rapid growth and had to address customer needs. I know it is a 
challenge. You have got to bring on people and I am glad to 
hear that you are trying to get hired up as well.
    That is not going to solve your problem. You need to 
address the system that you have got in place to be able to do 
that. Right now, do you have a backlog? I was given information 
that you have got a backlog of about 3 million passports. Is 
that accurate?
    Ms. Bitter. Waiting to be processed. We may have slightly 
less than that now.
    Senator Ricketts. Slightly less than 3 million passports. I 
can tell you again, just sharing the experience in Nebraska, 
that a few years ago it was a couple a month that we would get 
asked for help. I am told in the Senate office my caseworkers 
now are saying we are getting five or six a day.
    I know that, for example, when you start--when you are not 
processing things in a timely manner that actually adds to your 
work. You need to address the systems and I am looking at some 
information I was given here that a recent State Department 
Inspector General report found that Consular Affairs did not 
effectively manage its responsibilities related to passport IT 
modernization activities and that inner-department planning 
lacked project management processes, timelines, and milestones 
for key implementation decisions.
    You just told us you do not even have a goal that you are 
trying to reach to be able to get to about whether it is 2 
weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, down from your 10-13 weeks.
    Again, I have run large organizations, including most 
recently the state of Nebraska. If you do not set a goal, you 
are not going to get this number down. You have to set a goal 
first so that you can work backwards.
    Remember, we all have heard it. Start with the NMI. 
Secretary Bitter, you have got to start with a goal first.
    Second thing. Have you heard of Lean Six Sigma, which is a 
process improvement methodology? I would strongly recommend. I 
do not see it in your background, but get somebody on board who 
understands Lean Six Sigma.
    At the state of Nebraska, we successfully implemented that. 
We did 900 projects--900,000 hours of saving our teammates 
time, but basically it reduces the steps. For example, when we 
were doing an air construction permit, it was 110 steps long. 
We cut it down to 22 and we cut the time down from 190 days 
down to 65 days.
    It sounds like--when I listen to the problems you have, if 
you implement something like Lean Six Sigma you will be able to 
help address some of these issues and it gets back to, again, 
just making sure that you are setting goals and benchmarking 
it.
    One of the things I believe that the previous 
Administration did is that they released the number of pending 
passport applications and updated that figure weekly. Are you 
doing that? Are you releasing your backlog and updating that 
weekly?
    Ms. Bitter. Releasing publicly, sir?
    Senator Ricketts. Yes.
    Ms. Bitter. I am not aware that we are.
    Senator Ricketts. Would you be willing to consider that? 
Would you commit to releasing that number so we can, again, 
getting back to the chairman's point, help track where you are 
going with regard to your progress?
    Ms. Bitter. We are very happy to consider any suggestions 
that the committee has.
    Senator Ricketts. Yes. I would--I think that would, again, 
helping us be able to understand where things are rolling out 
and how things are going to be able to do that.
    I also want to hit upon two other topics--and I know I have 
only got a limited amount of time--first of all, with regard to 
what Senator Romney was saying. Again, Nebraska, the nearest 
office if you are driving is Minneapolis or Chicago. It is at 
least a 6-hour drive.
    We just had a father and young daughter having to drive 
there. Anything we can do to kind of mitigate that. Kansas 
City--I would love Omaha--but anything like that if you can do 
it.
    Then you talked about the consular--your declining consular 
service revenue and I believe that you have requested a 
statutory change in authorities, but you have not documented 
the analysis to support these requests. I guess my question is 
why is the State Department unwilling to apply the GAO's 
recommendations to perform and share the analysis with 
policymakers there so we are able to understand the impacts 
before taking legislative action?
    Again, my concern is if you are going to change something 
in statute without providing a business case, that we are going 
to make--have unintended consequences. Is there a reason why 
the State Department has not wanted to follow the GAO's 
recommendation with regard to coming back with a plan on this?
    Ms. Bitter. Thanks. Thank you, Senator. There is a lot to 
unpack there. Please let me know if there is--I will dive in 
and you let me know if there is things that you need for me to 
address specifically.
    I want to just back up for--on a couple of things and I 
will start actually with our request for expanded spending 
authorities, which I think is one of the things that you have 
referred to.
    When the pandemic hit and we lost 60--or 50, rather, 
percent of our revenue overnight, this--the Congress came to 
our rescue with appropriations. The other thing that it came to 
our rescue with was expanded spending authorities which allowed 
us to move money--to move our resources to where challenges 
were emerging for us just to more flexibly use the revenue that 
we had.
    I will give you an example of how we were able to use that, 
which is we were able to use increases in passport fees because 
we are completely fee driven. We were able to use increases in 
passport demand to be able to hire overseas adjudicators for 
our visa work, which is not something that we would have been 
able to do before.
    Those authorities expire year-to-year and need to be 
renewed and what we are seeking is for them to be made 
permanent so that we are better able to plan along the lines of 
the challenges that we have had that you have identified.
    With respect to IT and hiring, we want to be able to have a 
more secure year-to-year ability to plan for those big items 
and expanding authorities will allow us to do that. I can see 
that you want to jump in.
    Senator Ricketts. Yes. No, I am just going to--my time is 
up. I am going to interrupt you here and just say if you are 
going to want to make these changes, I cannot support anything 
without a plan and that is where I think that, again, the GAO 
recommended develop a plan, something about the cost model 
output is sufficient for the purpose. Again, just making sure 
we are lining up what you are charging for what the costs will 
be----
    Ms. Bitter. Right.
    Senator Ricketts. --so we do not overcharge people. I would 
recommend that you follow the GAO's plan on that.
    Ms. Bitter. Actually I would love if you are willing, 
Senator, for our staff to give you a briefing on that. We are--
--
    Senator Ricketts. Yes. Absolutely. That would be great.
    Ms. Bitter. Yes. We are very data driven with respect to 
how much we charge the public.
    Thank you.
    The Chairman. Senator Van Hollen.
    Senator Van Hollen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Great to see you, Assistant Secretary Bitter, and a lot of 
my colleagues have covered the territory I was going to cover 
including Senator Ricketts just now so I want to turn to a 
couple other issues.
    As you say in your testimony, our State Department 
personnel overseas could not operate successfully without 
loyal, locally employed staff. They are, as you say, the 
lifeblood of our operations and they often put themselves at 
great risk.
    In fact, just 3 weeks ago, three members of our team--our 
embassy team--foreign nationals in Nigeria were brutally 
murdered in the line of duty doing advance work for an USAID 
DART team.
    For over 70 years we have allowed these individuals after 
long and faithful service to emigrate to the United States with 
their families. Right now, we are facing a 14-year backlog 
between the time someone retires after 20 years of service and 
their ability to emigrate to the United States.
    This week, Senator Tillis and I will introduce legislation 
called the GRATEFUL Act to address this issue. I just have one 
simple yes or no question for you on this matter. Is passage of 
this legislation a top priority for the State Department?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes.
    Senator Van Hollen. Appreciate that, and I look forward to 
working with others to get that done. I want to ask you about a 
letter----
    The Chairman. Was that a leading question?
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Van Hollen. Yes, indeed.
    I want to ask you, Madam Assistant Secretary, about a 
letter that Senator Schatz, myself, and 14 others sent to 
Secretary Blinken and Mayorkas--sent it 2 weeks ago expressing 
our support for Israel's admission into our Visa Waiver 
Program, so long as they meet the requirements of U.S. law 
regarding reciprocal and equal treatment of all U.S. citizens 
regardless of race, religion, or national origin.
    I have a simple question here, too. Do you agree that the 
condition of reciprocity and equal treatment must be met before 
admission into the Visa Waiver Program?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes.
    Senator Van Hollen. We asked in that letter that we have a 
chance to meet with members of the Administration from the 
State Department and Homeland Security. Obviously, your 
portfolio is very involved with this issue. We asked for a 
meeting within 2 weeks. That was 2 weeks ago.
    Can you commit to us today that you will meet with us 
within the next 2 weeks at the latest?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes.
    Senator Van Hollen. Thank you.
    Now, in that letter we pointed to a number of statements 
that exist today on the Government of Israel's foreign ministry 
website and other official websites that by their own terms 
would effectively discriminate against certain Americans based 
on national origin.
    Would you agree that we could not move forward with a--even 
a trial period unless those clearly discriminatory guidelines 
are eliminated?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes, and if I may, this is an issue that we 
take really seriously. The Visa Waiver Program, as you know, is 
an interagency program designed to increase law enforcement 
cooperation information sharing, and there is a threshold 
question of visa refusal rates, but there are many, many steps 
that a government has to meet before it can enter the program 
and reciprocity is one of them.
    This is an issue that we are watching closely. We take it 
very seriously and we are keenly aware of the challenges that 
certain American citizens have had at Israel's borders and 
checkpoints.
    We have made very clear to the Israeli Government that in 
order to meet its VWP--its Visa Waiver Program requirements--
that it is going to have to treat all U.S. citizens and 
nationals the same regardless of national origin.
    You will have heard, I am certain, Ambassador Nides talk 
about blue is blue. If you have a blue passport, you have a 
blue passport, and we would expect for all Americans to be 
treated the same.
    Senator Van Hollen. I appreciate that strong statement and 
I also expect that you will establish a system to monitor 
compliance with that provision in the event that we go forward 
with the Visa Waiver Program. Is that right?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes, it would be our expectation that they 
would be able to meet the requirement prior to designation so 
that we would be able to monitor implementation.
    Senator Van Hollen. I appreciate that.
    Last question. With respect to your request for expanded 
budget authority--the ability to keep some of the fees that you 
are not allowed currently to keep, but also more flexible use 
of those you are--would that significantly improve the wait 
times which I appreciate all your efforts--it is incredibly 
frustrating, as you know, for those of us who are dealing with 
this, but would that make a material difference in terms of 
your ability to reduce the wait times?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes. Thank you for that question.
    I will talk just about a couple of the requests that we 
have and one other. The expanded spending authority will give 
us the ability to more--making permanent the expanded spending 
authority will give us the ability to more reliably plan year-
to-year and for things like IT, for things like hiring, these 
are just--they are issues that bedevil us and they require 
long-term planning. They are huge priorities for us, 
particularly in terms of passports.
    The other thing that we are requesting is you all very 
kindly--Congress--gave us the ability to retain the passport 
application execution fee and in FY22 the ability to spend the 
funds were limited to FY22.
    We can now retain, but not spend, and I want to link that 
to the growth in the percentage of Americans that have 
passports. That means that they are going overseas and what we 
are seeking in being able to expend those funds is a dedicated 
source to be able to support them when they are overseas 
without having to borrow or to steal from visa fees.
    That will give us a predictable source of funding for 
American citizens overseas, which is, of course, our highest 
priority. That will be able to withstand some of the shocks 
that we have experienced recently.
    If I could indulge just one more priority, which is we are 
fee-funded and we are also part of the State Department. We 
rely on the management platform of the State Department for 
everything that we do and so if I could make one request, it 
would be to consider the full funding of the State Department.
    A strong management platform is really important for our 
ability to be able to support your constituents. We rely on our 
very hard-working colleagues in the rest of the State 
Department and other bureaus for hiring, for training, for 
clearances, for contracts, all of the things that are important 
for us to be able to grow to meet this demand.
    I appreciate your indulgence for me to be able to highlight 
that one priority.
    Senator Van Hollen. Thank you.
    The Chairman. I will just say to my colleague that your 
legislation on helping those locally employed as a way to 
accelerate there, I would refer to the Judiciary Committee 
because it tweaks some immigration law, but to the extent that 
we can be helpful, I am happy to do so.
    Senator Van Hollen. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Senator Hagerty.
    Senator Hagerty. Thank Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Risch.
    Assistant Secretary Bitter, it is good to see you in 
person. Thanks for the time that you spent with me on the 
phone. I appreciate you and your staff continuing to work with 
my team on the backlog of passports and visas.
    We talked about this a bit yesterday. I hear a great deal 
from Tennesseans about the issue with respect to EB-3 visas for 
nurses. As you know, roughly two-thirds of the private hospital 
beds in America are managed out of Tennessee.
    We feel this in a very acute manner, but it affects the 
entire nation, and we will have--my understanding--is a gap of 
about 200,000 nurses that we need to fill every year until 2030 
to deal with the gap that has occurred because of retirements, 
the pandemic, et cetera, et cetera.
    I appreciate the help that your Department will provide. 
You and I talked about a series of data. I am going to put that 
into the QFRs so I do not have to burden my colleagues with all 
of that, but that will hopefully inform us on the progress that 
you are making and give us some benchmarks, moving forward.
    I would like to turn my next focus to an issue that 
concerns me and, I think, a great number of us with respect to 
how we deal with China's access to our education systems.
    In May of 2020, former President Trump signed Presidential 
Proclamation 10043. That suspended the entry of Chinese 
students and researchers into the U.S. that are connected with 
China's military-civil fusion strategy. They call it MCF.
    MCF is an effort by the CCP to fuse its private industries 
and institutions with its defense industry in order to advance 
China's economic and their military aspirations.
    This proclamation is intended to stop the CCP from stealing 
from the United States world-class academic and research 
capabilities in order to build the Chinese military, and 
according to an April 11 Forbes article, the proclamation 
denies a visa to Chinese students who studied at a particular 
university whether or not any negative information exists about 
the individual, the focus being here on the university.
    Assistant Secretary Bitter, I would ask you if you are 
willing to share the list of Chinese universities that are 
subject to this visa denial under the Proclamation 10043.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for that question, Senator, and I am 
aware of the prohibition against issuing visas to graduate 
students at certain universities. I do not know that there is 
any prohibition. I just need to--I would love to be able to 
check and get back to you on it.
    Senator Hagerty. I will bring something to your attention. 
It is a great concern of mine, but I think about the top 
universities--Beijing University, Tsinghua University--there in 
China.
    I do not believe they are on this list. Tsinghua 
University, for example, has eight national defense 
laboratories. Tsinghua receives funding from the PLA. Tsinghua 
does joint training with the PLA in computer science re: 
cybersecurity.
    This certainly sounds like military-civil fusion to me and 
I think it is something that would be a concern to all of us. 
Thank you for taking a look at that and I would appreciate you 
getting back to me with where we are on that and where we may 
be going.
    I would also just like to reiterate the point that Senator 
Van Hollen made about Israel and their ability to get into the 
Visa Waiver Program. I think the relationship that we have with 
Israel is absolutely critical.
    There is an aim for visa--I am sorry, for Israel to meet 
the Visa Waiver Program requirements by September of this year 
and I have seen some analysis that suggests that if Israel were 
able to participate in the program, it would result in 450,000 
additional visitors coming from Israel to the United States 
over a 3-year period.
    If you think about that in terms of economic benefit, that 
would be $3.6 billion, roughly, of economic benefit to the 
United States and it would support roughly 6,000 jobs.
    I have a real interest in seeing that sort of economic 
engagement as a benefit of this program and it certainly sounds 
to me that you are committed to working on this.
    I understand the reciprocity issues that you and Senator 
Van Hollen discussed. I just want to make certain that you are 
willing and will make every effort to work with Israel in 
helping them comply with whatever requirements may exist and 
stand in the way.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you, Senator. That is something that we 
work very closely with the Department of Homeland Security on 
and our colleagues there are--we are all very engaged on this. 
Thank you for raising it. We will continue to work.
    Senator Hagerty. Thank you. I would very much like to see 
the Visa Waiver Program put in place with our ally Israel. 
Thank you so much.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Senator Schatz.
    Senator Schatz. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Chairman.
    I want to start in the Pacific Islands. The Secretary's 
FY24 budget request language has planned new posts in Kiribati, 
Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu and it mentions funding for 
reporting and diplomatic security positions, but was silent on 
consular staffing and services.
    Is the Department going to offer routine American citizen 
and visa services at each of these posts?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for that question, Senator.
    When new posts open, we are part of a much broader 
department effort to figure out what the correct footprint is, 
what the right staffing is. One thing I will highlight is that 
we do provide visa services now to folks that are resident in 
those places and we are always very attentive to American 
citizen services wherever Americans are.
    I think we are, again, as part of--we are still sort of 
figuring out what the footprint is going to look like there, 
but I can assure you that we will do everything that we can do 
to make sure that we serve the people in those communities to 
the best of our ability.
    Senator Schatz. Well, I did not hear a yes and I understand 
resources constraints, but it does not seem to me that we are 
appropriately raising expectations about our relationship with 
these nations and trying to be more present and trying to be 
more responsive and seems to me, especially when you are 
establishing a physical presence and then you have somebody 
coming in episodically to process some of these relatively 
routine applications, it may undermine the basic point of all 
of this, and that is where I am coming from is that ``in for a 
dime, in for a dollar,'' that is my philosophy.
    On the other hand, if you do not have the dollar, I get it, 
but I would like us to understand this as a strategic thrust of 
the Department of State and if we kind of cut off our own legs 
by not providing the services that one would expect with a 
physical presence, then I think we are saving a little bit of 
money, but undermining our basic strategic thrust.
    Ms. Bitter. I understand, and one thing I will say, 
Senator, is as we are part of these planning processes, whether 
in for a dollar, in for a dime, absolutely, or vice versa.
    We do spend a great deal of time trying to really ensure 
that we are projecting physical presence to the extent that we 
possibly can and we are very attentive to all of the things 
that you just said. I appreciate your raising them.
    Senator Schatz. Thank you. We will track that with you.
    Hawaii is going to host the Festival of Pacific Arts and 
Culture in June of 2024, 3,500 participants, including senior 
officials from 28 countries, throughout the Asia Pacific 
region.
    FestPAC is a real opportunity. I mean, it is cultural 
event, but it is a real opportunity to strengthen ties between 
the United States and the people and the governments of the 
Pacific Islands.
    The success of this event is going to depend on efficient 
visa processing for a lot of Pacific Islanders for whom 
Auckland and Sydney are the most convenient visa processing 
posts. Long wait times--149 days are at least what we are being 
told is the wait time for B-1/B-2.
    Can I have your commitment to work with us to reduce those 
wait times to make sure that to the degree and extent that we 
have an opportunity to kind of celebrate our shared values, to 
strengthen our friendships, and even to align better 
strategically.
    I can tell you as a senator from the state of Hawaii, there 
is a saying in Hawaii, everything in Hawaii is political except 
politics, which is personal, and this is a real opportunity for 
us to build those person-to-person ties.
    It does not work if the State Department is the rate-
limiting factor. Can I just have your commitment to work this 
through?
    Ms. Bitter. Absolutely, and we have, sir, a business visa 
unit that handles events and cultural activities and 
conferences just like this to make sure that folks are able to 
participate in them. Those kinds of people-to-people ties are 
enormously important. We recognize our strong responsibility in 
that area.
    Senator Schatz. Great. In the interest of time, I am going 
to condense my question about the Philippines and visa 
processing. We are told it is still 149 days for B-1/B-2 just 
to get an interview and Hawaii employers in particular are 
asking my office to do something about that.
    I get that 149 days is fewer than it used to be relatively 
recently, but what are you doing to reduce that number of days 
to land in a reasonable place?
    Ms. Bitter. Right.
    Senator Schatz. Because 149 is better than 300. It is still 
awful.
    Ms. Bitter. I appreciate that, and if I could just take a 
minute to talk a little bit about our really hard-working teams 
in the field where I really appreciate your raising this.
    We have been working with DHS and others to maximize our 
legal authorities, to waive interviews for low-risk travelers, 
and also to take advantage of improving technology to just 
increase our global capacity.
    In the nonimmigrant visa side, the result is that now 
fiscal year-to-date, we are 20--we have produced 22--issued 22 
percent more visas than we did this time prepandemic. We are 
really extraordinarily productive.
    It is true that wait times for first time, tourist visas 
are longer than we would want at some posts, but in places like 
the Philippines and elsewhere, virtually every other category, 
visa wait times and processing times is at prepandemic levels 
or below.
    I also just want to highlight that we work very closely 
with our colleagues at posts to make sure that there are 
procedures in place for emergency travel.
    I mentioned our business visa unit. We are very, very 
committed to this and we are really, really proud of the work 
that our folks in the field have done.
    Thank you.
    Senator Schatz. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Senator Risch.
    Senator Risch. Yes, thank you. Do you have any idea about 
what percentage of your applications are renewals for a 
passport?
    Ms. Bitter. I believe it is 25 percent.
    Senator Risch. About a fourth of them are renewals?
    Ms. Bitter. Please do not hold me to that, but I will 
confirm and get back to you.

[Editor's note.--The requested information referred to above 
follows:]

    Answer. Approximately 40 percent of passport applications are 
renewals submitted using the DS-82 application.

    Senator Risch. Senator Menendez and I were just talking. We 
did some quick research and determined that the 10-year period 
is statutory, which means we set it originally--we, the 
Congress, set it, which also means we can change it.
    What would you think of the idea of changing it to a point 
where after persons had one for 10 years, their next 
application could be for a permanent passport? Because, look, 
if we got problems, we pull somebody's passport, whether it is 
during the first 10 years or anytime thereafter and it seems to 
me if they had one for 10 years and there was no problem, there 
is no reason you could not issue them a permanent passport, 
which, of course, could be terminated at any time for problems.
    What would you think? That seems to me it would cut back at 
least some the workload you have on applications for renewals.
    Ms. Bitter. We would be very happy to work with you on any 
ideas that you have along those lines, sir.
    Senator Risch. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    The Chairman. Well, whether it is permanent or a longer 
period of time seems to me that there is nothing magical about 
the 10 years unless either the Department or the Department of 
Homeland Security can give us insights as to why 10 years is 
magical.
    If it is not magical, that there is something special that 
10 years is the catch all to find something, then I agree with 
Senator Risch. We should think about extending the time period.
    It would save money. It would dramatically reduce time. It 
would give people greater flexibilities. I am not sure why--
absent some insights, I am not sure why we should not consider 
statutorily extending the time and would look forward to having 
that visit with you.
    Senator Risch and I are going to send you a letter. I have 
been at this 30 years and I will say this--my words, not 
yours--but there is a reticence when we are asking you what it 
is that you need. I do not quite get a clear picture of what 
you need.
    Maybe you feel that you cannot ask because the Department 
does not want you to ask or the hierarchy--I get all of that. I 
am going to put you on the spot and I am going to send a copy 
to the secretary as well--John--and I am going to ask you what 
authorities, resources, personnel, budget, automation, 
technology, or anything else that you need in order to bring 
this down to what I think most Americans would consider a 
reasonable period of time, and I would expect an answer to that 
in a very short period of time since you have been studying 
this. In this way, you are responding to the committee's 
questions and nobody at the Department should be upset about 
responding to the committee's questions.
    Senator Cardin.
    Senator Cardin. First, Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding 
this hearing.
    Ms. Bitter, it is always good to see you. I apologize for 
not being here for the whole hearing. I am ranking--I am 
chairman of the Small Business Committee and we were having a 
meeting of the Small Business Committee and I had to 
participate in, and I know that the delays in passport visa 
applications has been the center of this discussion today.
    I am going to sort of take this from a little bit different 
angle in my request. Just so you know my circumstances in 
Maryland, we get between one to two dozen calls a day on 
challenges on passports or visas or something to deal with 
similar situations and we are somewhat at a loss as to how to 
help our constituents. That is unacceptable.
    I am with the chairman. We want to make sure you have the 
tools so there is a reasonable process in place and you had--we 
can tell that you can get your services done in an efficient 
way. We want all that done.
    In the meantime, where we are today, our constituents need 
to know what path they need to take in order to be able to get 
the passport or visa that they need and, unfortunately, that is 
not the case.
    We hear that it may be, I do not know, 6, 8 weeks to get a 
passport--10 weeks, 12 weeks--and there is an expedited process 
that shortens it a little bit. There is emergency procedures 
that shortens it more, and you need an appointment. You cannot 
get an appointment. Your local office is closed. You shop 
around the country to try to find an office where you can 
expedite it. Some people travel--a person traveled last week up 
to Buffalo from Baltimore in order to get an appointment only 
to find out that--one of my colleagues from New York told me 
they were able to get an appointment in DC.
    It just does not make sense. We need to have clear 
direction so that we can advise our constituents appropriately. 
We understand that emergencies are defined as emergency, but if 
a person is traveling, let us say, 10 weeks or 12 weeks from 
now, 3 months from now--they file for an application. The 
application for the passport renewal was not received. Now it 
is 4 weeks. Should they be contacting you to get it because 
they are now 4 weeks away? Two weeks, should they be contacting 
you or not--1 week away?
    What are the rules here? Unless we have some understanding 
what the rules are all about, how can we help you in regards to 
the current situation?
    Yes, let us improve the current situation. Let us give you 
the resources you need, but we need to be able to deal with the 
requests of our constituents so they understand their options.
    We tell them to take--cannot plan a trip unless you have 6 
months advance notice. That is the rules? We do not like it, 
but at least we can tell them that.
    How can we get clear information out to the people of our 
community and why would it be so different for someone from 
Maryland having to go up to New York and someone from New York 
having to go back to DC in order to get their appointments?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you, Senator, and I appreciate the 
frustration that I know that your constituents are feeling, 
particularly about trying to find an appointment at a close 
counter.
    I will simply say on that, that our emergency and expedited 
services at our counters, they are doing across the network 
23,000 emergency appointments a week. They have added weekend 
hours. They have added--they have extended their hours. There 
it is prepandemic and better in terms of the number of people 
that they are trying to see.
    Sometimes it is true folks might have to travel to find an 
appointment. We always will work with your staff, as you know, 
sir, and we are so grateful to members and their staff for 
drawing cases to our attention that do require emergency 
appointment.
    Given the volume that we are seeing and the number of 
people that require appointments, we will do everything that we 
can do to accommodate people with humanitarian emergency needs.
    It is a little bit harder for us always to accommodate 
leisure travel. What we try really, really hard to do is to 
publicize wait times so that Americans can plan their travel. 
We try really hard to make sure Americans understand that 
before you plan your trip, you should look at your passport and 
to take into consideration processing times. We----
    Senator Cardin. They do not know what the processing time 
is. We were told one time it was 8 weeks, another time it was 
12 weeks, and we have people who have--who could not get their 
passports within that period of time.
    Ms. Bitter. Yes.
    Senator Cardin. Then there are the emergency situations in 
which you do not consider it an emergency because it is leisure 
travel, but they applied 12 weeks ago. They think they have 
complied with the rules. They think it is an emergency.
    Ms. Bitter. Oh, understood. Absolutely.
    Processing times do vary and change and we keep them posted 
on our website, and one of the things that we are very lucky to 
have is 29 passport agencies and centers.
    We do a tremendous amount of outreach. We work with your 
staffs to try to get this information out there. Our passport 
agencies and centers do the same.
    I absolutely hear you that people do not hear it until they 
need it. We will work to ensure that we are doing everything 
that we can do to penetrate and make sure that we are getting 
this information out there, and we are grateful for the 
partnership of your staffs in doing that.
    Senator Cardin. Thank you for your commitment to this. We 
know it is not an easy task. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Senator Booker.
    Senator Booker. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    First of all, I know how hard a lot of the folks work and 
how you share a lot of the frustrations that you are hearing 
right now. I obviously have the same experience with a lot of 
constituent calls and just not even understanding often how the 
wait times are. The earliest appointments often somebody can 
schedule come from different states. It is a bit of a maze and 
I am hoping that the passion that you are hearing from a lot of 
the senators now could help us to lead to some solutions.
    I am wondering, maybe constructively, to see about staffing 
vacancies in general and to what extent are staffing vacancies 
at high demand posts like in Pakistan, Nigeria, and Haiti 
delaying appointments for immigrant visa applicants in regards 
to those countries, which we get a lot of calls, I am sure 
Senator Menendez and I both, in our state of New Jersey.
    Ms. Bitter. Right. I appreciate that question. I will talk 
a little bit about staffing and I will talk just in general 
about our immigrant visa.
    Senator Booker. Yes, and I am just going to put, while you 
are talking about vacancies, just in the same vein, does 
Consular Affairs have acute staffing shortages in posts that 
adjudicate high volumes of work study applicants? That is 
another area.
    Then something my office hears a bit about is do you have a 
view that there are--well, I will stick with those staffing 
vacancy questions first.
    Ms. Bitter. Okay. Great. Thank you.
    We are talking specifically about immigrant visas, so let 
me just mention--you have mentioned our highest--some of our 
very high volume posts in that respect.
    We do have staffing. We have not yet--let me put it this 
way. The Department has not yet filled all of the vacancies 
that were frozen. We froze positions during the pandemic when 
our--when our revenue went down.
    Thanks to Appropriations we were not--we did not have to 
fire people, but we did have to freeze positions. We were able 
to begin hiring again, again, thanks to expanded spending 
authorities, which we hope to make permanent.
    We were able to begin hiring again in about--I think it was 
January of--I do not quite remember, but I think it was January 
2021, was the first--January 2022, rather, was the first class 
of people we were able to bring back in.
    It takes time to hire and train these folks to go out 
overseas. We do still have staffing gaps in some of our 
positions, especially at some of the higher volume posts, 
because they have the most number of positions that were 
frozen, but we expect--the Department expects to be able to 
fill those positions by the end of this fiscal year.
    That said, you will see in our ops plan and our request for 
appropriations we are seeking to hire even more people to be 
able to address what we absolutely believe is going to be----
    Senator Booker. I appreciate that. I have got a really 
rough chairman here. He is tough on me. I want to get some more 
questions in before he cuts me off.
    Ms. Bitter. Okay.
    Senator Booker. We know that the call for the immediate 
release of Evan Gershkovich despite concerns that Russian 
Government is using him and other high-profile cases to gain 
political leverage, what role has Consular Affairs played in 
this case of Mr. Gershkovich?
    How does Consular Affairs Hostage Affairs Unit coordinate 
with the State Department in cases like these and is the State 
Department considering any policy changes for the wrongfully 
detained terminations and reassignment of these cases to the 
Office of the Special President Envoy for Hostage Affairs?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for that. I am going to just quickly 
brag about immigrant visas. We have reduced the backlog of 
cases by 24 percent this year and the productivity in immigrant 
visas is 20 percent where it was prepandemic. We are moving 
through that and I appreciate your raising it because we know 
that immigrant visas and family reunification is a huge 
priority for Congress.
    Moving on to wrongful detention, we work really closely--
first of all, many, many thanks to Congress and in particular 
this committee and the staff of this committee for the Levinson 
Act, which is an enormously powerful tool in our toolkit in 
terms of identifying and figuring out what we can do to assist 
American citizens who may be wrongfully detained overseas.
    We work in lockstep with our colleagues in the Special 
Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Office to implement the 
Levinson Act and we work with them closely to make sure that we 
are implementing the act in the way that it was intended.
    One thing I will highlight with respect to the Bureau of 
Consular Affairs, we are--we care about all detainees. There 
are 1,700-plus American citizens detained overseas and our job 
is to make sure that we advocate for them for the best possible 
treatment, that we advocate for their--for humanitarian 
treatment----
    Senator Booker. For that I am grateful and I know a lot 
about, but I am wondering about this specific idea of 
reassigning the cases to the Office of Special Presidential 
Envoy.
    Ms. Bitter. Right. When somebody is determined to be 
wrongfully detained, the leadership of the case moves to the 
SPEHA office, we call it, but the actual day-to-day visiting, 
the actual day-to-day face of the Department for that wrongful 
detainee will be a consular officer at a post overseas.
    Senator Booker. Okay. Just real quick, what steps has the 
State Department taken in response to a criticism I hear a lot, 
that families of U.S. citizens detained abroad receive 
insufficient information about their loved ones and when 
Consular Affairs provide a list of attorneys to U.S. citizen 
family members or next of kin, does it indicate which ones 
speak English? If some embassies do list attorneys that speak 
English, what efforts is the Department taking to standardize 
the practice at all overseas posts? This is a lot of incoming 
that we get.
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you. This is the first that I have heard 
of that complaint. We do maintain lists of attorneys and as I 
mentioned we are--we work really hard to make sure we are doing 
everything we can to support detainees overseas, especially to 
ensure that they are connected with their families.
    If I may have our team get back in touch with your team.
    Senator Booker. Absolutely. Again, I know----
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you.
    Senator Booker. --from working with your office, a lot of 
the commitment of the people that work there. There are 
understandable frustrations and I hope we can just continue to 
work together.
    Ms. Bitter. I appreciate it. If you hear things and we do 
not know about them, then we cannot fix them, so we are 
grateful.
    Senator Booker. Okay, and I will give my thanks to the 
benevolency of the chairman of this committee.
    The Chairman. I was going to say you made that comment 
about being tough. You are 2 minutes over your 5 minutes. You 
had 7 minutes and I did not even bang the gavel. I do not know 
what you are----
    Senator Booker. Your grace and magnanimity is obvious and I 
am appreciative.
    [Laughter.]
    The Chairman. Senator Kaine.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and actually you 
enabled me to catch my breath and figure out what I wanted to 
ask.
    Senator Booker. That is exactly what my purpose was in 
going over.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Kaine. I know that my colleagues have raised issues 
about visa and passport delays and I do not need to go into 
that.
    My Virginians are experiencing the same thing and I know 
there are a lot of reasons for it--the COVID-related backlogs, 
et cetera. Also, with COVID restricting travel, everybody has 
saved their travel and then they all want to travel at the same 
time.
    I get this, but I know my colleagues have asked about it 
and I wanted to just put that on the record as well. I just 
hope that we can really, really whittle that down.
    Here is a particular one that is about Virginia, that may 
not be completely in your bailiwick. That is part of the 
problem with this issue, everybody says it is not in their 
bailiwick, but I want to put it on State's radar screen.
    In the fall of 2021, the Northern Virginia Emergency 
Response System--NVERS--which is a coalition of Northern 
Virginia local governments, especially health departments, at 
providers like Inova, our largest hospital organization.
    Inova stepped up to provide vital support in terms of 
patient tracking, transport, and medical services for the 
evacuees who were coming to the United States from Afghanistan.
    Most of the evacuees from Afghanistan came in to Dulles 
Airport. A few--a small percentage started to come in through 
the Philly airport, but they came to the Dulles Airport. They 
were initially processed at a convention center near the Dulles 
airport and during this processing they had medical needs. 
There were pregnant women. There were people that were being 
tested for COVID, were testing positive.
    They had a lot of medical needs, and the Federal Government 
asked the Northern Virginia medical community to step up and 
provide services during that really important time, and I am 
really proud of the fact that our medical community did step 
up.
    Then the evacuees were dispersed to eight military bases 
around the country, three of which were in Virginia, but in 
particular during this period in Virginia, there is about a 
$687,000 bill that these--the medical folks were glad to step 
up, but they were not doing it for free, and they were told if 
they provided services they would be reimbursed and yet they 
have never been reimbursed.
    It is $687,000 and they have kind of been sent around--
well, no, it is DHS' issue. No, that is State's issue. No, that 
is HHS' issue.
    Senator Warner and I have been working on this. We have 
written a letter to all the relevant agencies saying, well, we 
do not care who pays it and if you want to divide it in three, 
that would be okay as well, but I remain concerned that here we 
are, nearly 2 years later and these critical partners, NVERS, 
who stepped up to provide services to people who needed them 
have yet to be reimbursed.
    I just want to kind of put that on your radar screen and 
the reason--it is not just in the rearview mirror. Dulles is 
still being used as the place where, for example, when we bring 
in 220 political prisoners liberated from prisons in Nicaragua, 
including presidential candidates that the Ortega regime threw 
in jail, they come in. They need medical service.
    The Northern Virginia community wants to be there and 
provide service, but the experience that they had with the 
Afghan evacuees makes them think, well, are they just going to 
tell us we will be reimbursed to not get reimbursed.
    I would like to secure that are all--make sure my team 
gives you all the information on this, but I think these folks 
after 2 years are entitled to be reimbursed and not just be 
sent from one office to the other in kind of a shell game.
    Ms. Bitter. Understood. I appreciate your raising it and we 
will follow up.
    Senator Kaine. Great.
    One last item. In 2011, Consular Affairs initiated 
ConsularOne, this initiative to modernize, consolidate, or 
replace functionality of 90 different discrete consular legacy 
technology systems and put it into a single framework.
    The OIG estimated that as of June 2021, the costs for the 
ConsularOne initiative dating back to 2011 range between $200 
million and $600 million.
    Now, the fact that that range is so broad and the OIG could 
not even say what the cost was to more specificity than that is 
a little bit odd.
    The initiative predates your arrival at the bureau, but the 
OIG's most recent recommendation about this shows that there 
are six recommendations from December 2021 that continue to 
remain open without action.
    Do you know what the process is for implementing these 
remaining six recommendations about the ConsularOne initiative?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you for raising that.
    If I could just sort of put this in a somewhat broader 
context----
    Senator Kaine. Please.
    Ms. Bitter. --including to highlight that modernizing our 
technology is just a hugely important part of what we need to 
do including hiring IT professionals and all of the other staff 
that comes along with being able to have a stable platform and 
a system that is agile enough to be able to not just keep up 
with the demands and needs, but also to help us get ahead.
    Our systems are incredibly complex. They are at 240 posts 
overseas, 29 passport agencies and centers domestically. They 
are required to be available 24/7/365 and also to talk to all 
of the other national security systems that the U.S. Government 
maintains.
    They are really, really complex. We have made great strides 
in the last several years on the--to modernize and stabilize 
the platform. Many of our systems are 20 years old, so 
investing in the platform and ensuring that it is always 
available when it needs to be available has been a huge focus.
    Now we are asking--you will see in our 2023 ops plan and 
our 2024 budget a request to be able to augment and to be able 
to continue to invest in technology. We cannot hire our way, 
and we do not want to, out of the challenges that we have in 
terms of increasing workload, which is a trend. It is not an 
anomaly.
    Senator Kaine. Here is what I would like to do. I am over 
my time, but I think what I will do is, I will do a QFR and I 
will list each of the six recommendations that were deemed open 
by the OIG in December 2021, and I will ask what is the 
progress on implementing or closing this recommendation. I will 
just ask that about each of the six and I think that is 
probably a better way to do this than to try it here.
    Ms. Bitter. That would be great. We have a--we would be 
grateful to be able to tell the story. Thank you.
    Senator Kaine. Okay. You bet. Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
    The Chairman. I have some final questions, Madam Secretary.
    Whether it was 3 years ago when COVID-19 first hit, or 2021 
when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban and most recently in Sudan 
when Khartoum saw a rapid development of violence in the 
capital, the Department of State has undertaken several 
repatriation programs for Americans abroad.
    While I believe that our consular officers perform 
admirably under the Herculean task they were directed to do, 
what are some of the big lessons that the State Department has 
learned from these repatriation efforts?
    What additional or different planning, structure, staff, or 
modes of operation do you think are necessary so that we are 
better prepared for future contingencies of this sort?
    I have been thinking about in the State Department 
reauthorization legislation that we are doing, whether there 
should be a permanent crisis intervention department because 
these things are going to happen and putting it all together 
for a specific moment, whether it be Sudan or anything else, is 
not as good as having a system in place that can, largely, 
respond to any set of circumstances anywhere on the globe.
    Any takeaways for the committee to be thinking about?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to 
answer that question.
    The bureau is part of, as I am certain you are aware, a 
department-wide and interagency effort to constantly be 
preparing for crises and trying to anticipate where they may 
occur.
    In terms of lessons learned, for us all, crisis response 
starts with information. We are working hard to improve our 
delivery of information and we are always looking at ways that 
we can assist American citizens and better inform them about 
changing circumstances so that they are prepared and can make 
informed decisions about places that they travel.
    I think you are--when you talk about a permanent crisis--
standing up a permanent crisis intervention--so the two things 
that that makes me think of are--one is contained in our budget 
request, which is what we would like to do is to be able to 
develop--part of our funding request is to--we have a 24/7 call 
center that is available to American citizens in crises.
    We would like to be able to develop that further and to 
expand it to be able to make it more user-friendly and more 
available to American citizens all the time and in a crisis as 
well.
    The other thing that we have done--and this goes also to 
our IT infrastructure--one of the things that we really saw 
after Afghanistan was a real demand, a real need for us to be 
able to develop systems that allow us not just to track 
American citizens in a crisis, but also to communicate directly 
with them and to be able to gather better data about where they 
are and what their intentions are. We developed that after 
Afghanistan and we have been able to use it to good effect--
great effect, in fact--in Ukraine and in Sudan.
    When we talk about investing in IT solutions and being able 
to plan and being able to get ahead of the demands that we see 
we want to be able to do things before we have to respond. We 
want to be able to plan in advance and take advantage of all of 
the newest technology.
    The Chairman. Should we require Americans who are traveling 
abroad to ultimately register with the State Department or with 
the embassy--the U.S. embassy in that country? Because that 
would give us a--to the extent that they comply, it would give 
us a list in the moment of emergency as to who is there.
    Ms. Bitter. I know that there are members of Congress who 
have floated that and that it is under discussion. We are very 
happy to participate in those conversations, and you are 
absolutely correct that we do not track Americans and we know 
that Americans do not like to be tracked and so we are happy to 
participate in any conversations on that.
    The Chairman. I do not see it as tracking them. I see it as 
protecting them. If I do not know you are someplace, I cannot 
protect you until you ultimately let me know that you are 
there, and if we are already in the crisis mode and then you 
let me know that you are there, it is better than not knowing, 
but it is not as good as knowing in advance.
    Let me turn to a different aspect of the work that you do--
we have spent a lot of time on passports--but visa processing. 
My office and I suspect others receive a regular stream of 
complaints about the Department's transparency and 
communication and sometimes its agility and responsiveness when 
it comes to processing visas for a non-American family of U.S. 
citizens to visit the United States, for student visas, the 
work and business visas.
    I get it. If you do not get a visa, you are not happy. That 
is not what I am concerned about. I understand the threshold 
about not being a public charge, provisions of the law which 
is--but here is what I often hear and personally have seen and 
experienced firsthand, which is that as someone is trying to 
make the case that they will not be a public charge, that they 
have roots in their country, that they have a job, that they 
have maybe some money, that they have the things--property--the 
things that would help a consular office decide whether this 
person is going to overstay their visa or be a public charge or 
anything like that, is that there is a perfunctory--people tell 
me all the time I went up to the--I waited so long. I went up 
to the window. I was trying to make my case and the consular 
officer looked at my file and said, ``I am sorry, you are 
rejected.''
    Even if that was the right decision, just for argument's 
sakes, the process of going ahead--this is America's face to 
the world and that process in which people feel that they do 
not have a fair process or transparent as to how decisions were 
made. Is there work that you are doing in this regard?
    I understand it is a tough job and you can--that is why I 
always go see--whenever I travel abroad and visit our embassy, 
I always insist that the consular officer be part of my 
meetings because I know what a tough and generally ungrateful 
job it is.
    It still requires--a lot of us do tough and ungrateful 
jobs--it still requires doing it in a way that at the end of 
the day puts forth the best foot of America. What do you do in 
that regard?
    Ms. Bitter. Senator, I do not know if you recall, but you 
raised this with me in my confirmation hearing--I was very 
grateful to hear it--and you also mentioned in the last chief 
of mission conference that you insist on consular officers 
being included in meetings, and I have quoted you many, many, 
many times.
    I am really grateful to you for raising these issues and 
then for recognizing and highlighting the importance of our 
work. We are acutely aware--we are--it is our primary 
responsibility. Overseas, certainly we are the face of America 
and we are very aware of that.
    We work really, really hard in training with our managers 
and with our officers to remind them that that is a privilege 
and a responsibility and that everybody must be treated with 
respect.
    You have highlighted some of the challenges with that. 
Communication is imperfect. It is a high stress situation for 
visa applicants and we incorporate all of those things in our 
training with our officers.
    The other thing that we highlight for them is for new 
Foreign Service officers in particular, the reason that they--
that we--one of the reasons that we ask them to do this kind of 
work at the beginning of their career is as a reminder that 
people-to-people ties and our ability to communicate and to 
treat respectfully host country nationals is the foundation of 
our work and the foundation of people-to-people ties and it is 
really important.
    I appreciate your raising it and I will continue to quote 
you, and we will do our best to make sure that we do everything 
that we can do to fulfill that.
    The Chairman. I hope that even after someone gets the job 
and are doing it, that there is some type of--I do not want to 
call it sensitivity training, but nonetheless some type of 
training that constantly--it is, basically, in a sense a 
customer service training, that--I often have people who work 
for me in this regard and the beauty is when somebody still 
does not achieve what they want, but they are still thankful 
that they had the opportunity. That is not an easy touch to 
have, but it makes the world of difference for the individual.
    Ms. Bitter. It is what we ask.
    The Chairman. It gives them a sense that government 
actually is responsive to them.
    Ms. Bitter. It is what we ask them to do and it is expected 
of them.
    The Chairman. Two final questions.
    On May 19, The New York Times reported that in advance of 
their evacuation by U.S. military personnel from Sudan, U.S. 
diplomats in Khartoum destroyed passports left by Sudanese 
nationals with the U.S. embassy prior to the April 15 outbreak 
of fighting.
    According to The New York Times, some of the destroyed 
passports belonged to Sudanese staff members of the U.S. 
embassy. Sudanese whose passports were destroyed were stranded 
in Sudan, unable to leave due to the lack of travel documents.
    Can you describe the procedures that led to the destruction 
of foreign passports by an embassy and how many passports were 
destroyed, from what nationalities, and did the U.S. embassy 
also destroy the passports of Sudanese staff as reported by The 
New York Times?
    Ms. Bitter. Thank you. Senator, from your travels that 
embassies and consulates contain a tremendous amount of 
sensitive material, whether it is classified information or 
PII, medical records, things like that, and there are strict 
rules to be followed when a post suspends operations and for 
consular sections that does include destroying passports and 
also controlled items like blank passports and blank visa 
foils.
    Our staff did follow protocols when--during the time on the 
task force--the Sudan task force--we became aware of some of 
those cases of people whose documents had been destroyed, but 
they still wanted to evacuate.
    We worked very closely with individuals to assist them as 
they tried to evacuate either on one of our convoys or crossing 
borders, and one of the things that we did during that time, 
too, is we were able to replicate the consular systems in 
Khartoum before the embassy shut down so that we could produce 
those documents once we were able to help Sudanese cross the 
border.
    The Chairman. Why would we--I understand blank passports 
that are at an embassy for emergency procedures, replacements. 
I understand those being destroyed. Why would we destroy the 
passport of a foreign national who was working in our embassy?
    Ms. Bitter. I am not aware of those cases, sir. I need to 
double check and make sure you----
    The Chairman. Would you respond to the committee to those 
questions?
    Ms. Bitter. Yes, of course.
    The Chairman. I want to know how many passports were 
destroyed.
    Ms. Bitter. Of course.
    The Chairman. I want to know from what nationalities and I 
want to know did the U.S. embassy destroy the passports of 
Sudanese staff at our embassy as supposedly The New York Times 
reports. I think it is important to understand why--if those 
things happened, why they happened.

[Editor's note.--The requested information referred to above 
follows:]

    U.S. embassies and consulates do not routinely hold or store the 
passports of Locally Employed (LE) staff; these reports are incorrect. 
Two passports of LE staff members were destroyed during the evacuation 
of Embassy Khartoum, as these individuals had applied for U.S. 
nonimmigrant visas and their passports were in the possession of the 
consular section while their applications were processed. The embassy 
has confirmed these LE staff members have safely evacuated Sudan.
    In general, Department guidance for a drawdown of consular 
operations requires precautions to not leave behind any documents, 
materials, or information that could fall into the wrong hands and be 
misused. This would include personally identifiable information (PII) 
in consular sections such as passports and other documents identifying 
members of the public when they cannot be easily and safely returned to 
the owner and which could create harm if stolen. The standard operating 
procedure for drawing down a consular section during a crisis is 
outlined in 7 FAH-1 H-293. This and other sections of the Consular 
Management Handbook instructs consular sections to transfer or destroy 
any items containing personal identifying information.
    The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum had passports of Sudanese and third-
country nationals who were in the process of applying for visas, and 
passports of U.S. citizens seeking consular services. While U.S. 
embassies in drawdown make every effort to return PII items where 
possible, the urgent security environment in Sudan did not allow us to 
safely return those passports or transfer them to other locations. 
Therefore, the embassy followed Department guidance to destroy them 
rather than leave them behind unsecured. The embassy destroyed 49 U.S. 
passports, 42 Consular Reports of Birth Abroad, and approximately 190 
valid Sudanese and third-country passports. The embassy also destroyed 
approximately 150 expired Sudanese and third-country passports. The 
embassy and task force provided the biographical data of the 49 U.S. 
passports and 42 Consular Reports of Birth Abroad to the Bureau of 
Consular Affairs' Division of Passport Services so those records could 
be documented. Due to the security situation and time constraints, 
Embassy Khartoum was not able to record the biographical data of the 
destroyed Sudanese and third-country passports.

    Lastly, the United States enjoys strong people-to-people 
ties with India. India is now part of the Quad. We are 
constantly engaging it in geostrategic interests that we have.
    New Jersey is home to a great number of Indian Americans 
and their families. I appreciate and applaud the Department's 
heightened focus towards reducing wait times for first time B-
1/B-2 applicants in India.
    Despite that progress, this past year India continues to 
face the longest wait times globally with average wait times 
for an appointment for the first time, B-1/B-2 applicant 
ranging between 450 and 600 days.
    Could you please speak to me as to why that is the case----
    Ms. Bitter. Yes.
    The Chairman. --why it takes up to 600 days for an 
adjudication?
    Ms. Bitter. Sure. India is a place where we have 
historically had high demand for visas and there is just a 
tremendous amount of pent-up demand. It is one of the things 
about India that is--every post is unique, but they also had a 
really devastating bout with COVID-19 quite late and so that 
their ability to--the pent-up demand lasted quite a bit longer.
    We have surged staff there and when we did, we reduced wait 
times by about two-thirds. We have opened appointments for 
Indian nationals--dedicated appointments--in other posts for 
specific appointments and in all other categories--I am sure 
you are aware of this and you have mentioned it--wait times are 
prepandemic levels or better.
    We will adjudicate 1 million visas in India this year. Our 
productivity there is extraordinarily high. I think--I do not--
I probably should not say this on the record, but I think we 
are at maybe even 57 percent above where we were for 
prepandemic.
    We are--the staff there is incredible and working 
enormously hard, acutely aware of these challenges and working 
very, very hard to address them.
    The Chairman. I appreciate that. All I am saying is if we 
have a country that we are now including in the Quad, that we 
are in the midst of talking about creating a strategic pipeline 
through and all of these other things, that we are weaning off 
of Russian military equipment, all in a goal as we meet the 
China challenge to be a more significant player with us, part 
of that overall equation is making sure that we can adjudicate 
more actively, more aggressively.
    I appreciate the size of the challenge, but it is also the 
size of the country.
    Ms. Bitter. Right.
    The Chairman. It is because of that and other reasons that 
we have decided to make it a significant partner. I hope we can 
find ways to further adjudicate and reduce that 600 days 
waiting time.
    Ms. Bitter. The reasons that you articulated are the exact 
reasons we have prioritized this and sent surge teams and 
others. I take your point. We are working very hard on it. 
Thank you for raising it.
    The Chairman. All right. We are going to send you that 
letter I referred to--the questions. I look forward to your 
response. The purpose of the letter is really to be helpful to 
you. I hope you will answer it in that spirit.
    Let me thank you for appearing before the committee today. 
The record for the hearing will remain open until close of 
business on Friday, June 9. Please ensure that questions for 
the record are submitted no later than that date.
    With that, this hearing is adjourned. Thank you.
    [Whereupon, at 11:47 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
                              ----------                              


              Additional Material Submitted for the Record


               Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions 
                  Submitted by Senator Jeanne Shaheen

    Question. Background: As the situation in Afghanistan has evolved, 
especially since August 2021, the guidelines for eligibility and 
processing visas have changed. My casework staff have noticed 
conflicting guidance or responses to inquiries that do not reflect 
policy changes.
    How is updated guidance communicated to the National Visa Center 
(NVC) staff who process visas and who liaise with applicants and 
Congress?

    Answer. The National Visa Center (NVC) is part of the Visa Office 
in the Bureau of Consular Affairs. As such, NVC maintains close and 
regular communications with Visa Office headquarters, interagency 
partners, and U.S. Embassies and Consulates abroad to ensure NVC public 
and congressional communications and processing align with U.S. 
Government policies and priorities.

    Question. Are there ways in which the NVC could improve 
communication with SIV applicants, who often do not have any insight 
into the process or where their application sits in the Chief of 
Mission (COM)-review queue?

    Answer. The Department tracks and publishes quarterly reports 
reflecting the average processing time for each step in the SIV 
application process, including the COM review stage. Our Visa Office 
staff, including those at the National Visa Center (NVC), regularly 
update SIV-related information on Travel.State.gov to ensure its 
accuracy. We also conduct outreach to attorney groups, NGOs, and 
Congressional staff. Processing times vary on a case-by-case basis, and 
applicants may also contact NVC directly for an update on the status of 
their case.

    Question. How does the Visa Center guarantee that all SIV applicant 
emails are read and responded to in a timely manner?

    Answer. The work performed by contract staff at the National Visa 
Center is monitored in accordance with contract requirements on 
timeliness and accuracy. Contract staff follow standard operating 
procedures and escalation procedures for addressing complex cases.

    Question. Has the Department considered implementing an SIV 
applicant portal similar to the Consular Electronic Application Center 
(CEAC) to help streamline document submissions and processing?

    Answer. We have undertaken substantial efforts to streamline the 
Afghan SIV application and adjudication process. On January 3, 2023, 
the National Visa Center (NVC) eliminated its visa pre-processing 
backlog and has been maintaining a processing time of less than 10 
business days for pre-COM inquiries and the review of document 
submissions in the visa processing stages of SIV processing. The 
Department processed 63 percent more COM approval applications in Q2 of 
FY 2023 than in the prior quarter.

    Question. As we emerge from the pandemic, growth in the travel and 
tourism sector is critical to our economic recovery. However, visa wait 
times continue to limit our nation's ability to be globally competitive 
in the travel and tourism market. I appreciate the work that the State 
Department has done and flexibility in addressing the needs of the 
travel and tourism community. I am concerned that delays in processing 
visas have failed to meet the current demand:
    When does the State Department expect visa interview wait times for 
first time applicants from top inbound markets to drop below 30 days?

    Answer. Today, more people than ever before can travel to the 
United States. Of the top 20 inbound visitor nationalities, just eight 
require a U.S. tourist visa. In the first 5 months of FY 2023, the U.S. 
Missions in those countries together issued 23 percent more visitor 
(B1/B2) visas and border crossing cards than during the same period in 
FY 2019. The median wait time for first time visitor visa interview is 
around 2 months. In all other categories, processing times are at pre-
pandemic levels or better. Our goal is wait times of less than 120 days 
at more than 90 percent of posts by early 2024.

    Question. LDRM is the contracting company providing staff for the 
NVC, but my office has received many complaints from those staff about 
LDRM's execution of its contract with State.
    How does Consular Affairs measure the success of a contracting 
company, and does anyone within your Bureau speak to contractor staff 
about any concerns they may have? What is the Department of State's 
role in overseeing the contract?

    Answer. On all contracts, Consular Affairs works with the Bureau of 
Administration via the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting 
System. If work is unsatisfactory, the Bureau of Administration can 
take several actions to monitor improvement of the contractor. The 
Bureau of Administration gives the contractor specifics of what is to 
be performed, and the time frame in which to perform it. If no 
improvement is shown at the end of that time, the Bureau of 
Administration can terminate the contract.

    Question. Background: Like many, my office has seen an increased 
volume of passport cases recently. My staff have also noticed an 
increase in delayed passport applications filed online.
    Can you address what happened to online passport applications filed 
during this period? Has CA seen any other issues with online passport 
applications?

    Answer. The Department of State plans to re-launch the Online 
Passport Renewal (OPR) program by the end of 2023. More than 565,000 
Americans applied for and received passports using OPR during our 
public pilot from August 2022 to February 2023. We took the pilot 
offline when volumes increased in order to consolidate lessons learned 
before relaunch.

    Question. The State Department plans to fully launch its online 
renewal platform later this year. What is the Department doing to 
ensure similar issues do not occur in the future?

    Answer. During the pilot of Online Passport Renewal, we captured 
customer and internal user feedback. This feedback, tied with our 
evaluation of system performance, is informing our transition to a new 
hosting platform. We are working closely with application developers, 
user-interface experts, and government partners to enhance our product. 
We are addressing specific customer pain points such as photo upload 
and application status information.

    Question. CA to draft: My office receives many cases where an 
acceptance agent, such as at the U.S. Post office, provides an 
applicant with incorrect guidance regarding wait times for an 
appointment, promising a Congressional office will get them an 
appointment or even advising against submitting an application:
    How does State and Consular Affairs coordinate with the U.S. Postal 
Service to communicate policy guidance to acceptance agents?

    Answer. It is not our policy to refer customers to Congressional 
offices. Acceptance agents advise applicants of current processing 
times. We would welcome additional information regarding the specific 
cases and the opportunity to correct any misunderstanding of our 
guidance.

    Question. Background: Americans experiencing issues with their 
passport applications are instructed to call the National Passport 
Information Center (NPIC). Many constituents report long wait times, 
dropped calls, poor service and sometimes incorrect guidance:
    What is the Administration doing to improve service at the NPIC and 
cut down wait times?

    Answer. NPIC handled 3.76 million customer inquiries year-to-date, 
compared to 3.07 million for the same timeframe last year. To address 
this spike in demand, NPIC tripled the number of phone lines and 
customer service representatives, expanded operating hours to include 
weekends, and opened a third facility. A Callback Assist feature now 
allows customers to receive a phone call when it is their turn for 
assistance, eliminating the need to wait. We work closely with the 
contractor to ensure that all operators are familiar with our policies 
and offering correct guidance to customers.

    Question. How does the Department communicate guidance to the NPIC?

    Answer. Passport Services' Customer Service team employs full-time 
liaisons who work on-site at two of NPIC's call centers. They provide 
Consular Affairs with real-time updates regarding systems, staffing and 
performance challenges while simultaneously informing NPIC of any 
changes to policy and procedures both in writing and in-person during 
both weekly and ad hoc meetings. We also review and approve all 
substantive changes to the knowledgebase articles that NPIC's Customer 
Service Representatives consult when talking with customers.

    Question. Is the State Department creating other channels to book 
in-person appointments, such as through a website?

    Answer. The Department of State plans to relaunch our online 
scheduling system this summer.
                                 ______
                                 

               Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions 
                    Submitted by Senator Marco Rubio

    Question. During the pandemic, the State Department significantly 
expanded telework eligibility for Civil Service and Foreign Service 
employees. However, the COVID-19 public health emergency has formally 
ended. It is time to bring back these employees into their respective 
offices, embassies, and consulates to properly provide services for the 
American people and conduct in-person diplomacy. U.S. Passport 
adjudication backlogs cannot be completed from an employee's dining 
room table and should most certainly not be conducted via a video 
conference on a boat in the Caribbean. What is the current backlog of 
U.S. Passport applications?

    Answer. Our public facing staff are required to work in-person. 
Passport agency and counter staff have been in the office since June 
2020.

    Question. Are all Consular Affairs employees physically working in 
the office daily to clear this backlog?

    Answer. Our passport agency and center staff, who have been working 
full-time in the office since June 2020, have worked hundreds of 
thousands of in-person overtime in order to meet demand and respond to 
Congressional constituent inquiries.

    Question. If there are still Consular Affairs employees teleworking 
from home, how are they able to conduct their work given they must 
review Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and data of American 
applicants during application reviews?

    Answer. Passport agency and center staff have been working full 
time in the office since June 2020. They are not permitted to 
physically remove applications and supporting documents from their 
workplace.

    Question. Does the State Department authorize employees to take 
home the PII of applicants?

    Answer. Passport employees are not permitted to physically remove 
applications and supporting documents from their workplace. Consular 
Affairs has strict policies and procedures in place to safeguard 
Americans' PII.

    Question. Will you assure Americans that Consular Affairs employees 
working from home have not exposed Americans' PII and data to 
unauthorized personnel?

    Answer. Passport agency and center staff have been working full 
time in the office since June 2020. Consular Affairs has strict 
policies and procedures in place to safeguard Americans' PII.

    Question. Would you agree that the processing of passports is a 
core function of Consular Affairs?

    Answer. Yes.

    Question. Is it acceptable for the passport application process for 
a new passport to take more than 5 months?

    Answer. The Department is committed to providing timely, accurate, 
secure passport products to U.S. citizens using all the tools at its 
disposal. Current routine passport processing time is 10-13 weeks.

    Question. Is the Department planning to open any additional 
domestic passport agencies given the substantial current and future 
workloads? If so, where?

    Answer. As outlined in the Department's Report on Ensuring 
Geographic Diversity and Accessibility of Passport Agencies, while the 
Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) strives to maximize accessibility and 
timely service delivery, physical agencies represent the costliest and 
least efficient service method for U.S. travelers. Building, equipping, 
and staffing new agencies takes a considerable amount of time, and the 
resulting benefits would be limited to the few customers in the 
agency's vicinity. To improve services nationwide for all customers, we 
are focusing on using our resources to modernize the passport 
experience.

    Question. The Biden administration has issued a President's 
Management Agenda which lists one of the priorities as improving the 
service design and customer-experience by reducing customer burden and 
streamlining processes for citizens interacting with the U.S. 
Government. Using the passport processing crisis as an example--current 
passport processing times are at an all-time high and private U.S. 
industry has developed technologies, processes, and procedures to 
ensure the efficient submission of passport applications to the 
Department of State. Yet, the Department of State is spending taxpayer 
dollars to develop an online passport processing system, which was 
piloted from August 2022 to February 2023 and ignored the immediate 
efficiencies which can be leveraged with private U.S. industry. What is 
the status of the State Department's online passport application and 
renewal programs?

    Answer. The Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) is working with several 
private U.S. companies on the design and implementation of the online 
passport renewal service. The pilot of the Online Passport Renewal 
(OPR) system enabled customers to submit an online application, upload 
a photograph, and make an electronic payment, all at their convenience, 
instead of completing paper documents and mailing an application 
package. Lessons learned from the pilot are being incorporated in the 
next version of OPR. CA is measuring the burden reductions this 
modernized system will provide to U.S. applicants.

    Question. What were the greatest challenges identified by the pilot 
programs for online passport renewal technology test?

    Answer. As the volume of applications in the Online Passport 
Renewal (OPR) application surged, specific points in the processing 
workflows and technical architecture did not scale sufficiently. The 
next version of OPR will move to a more flexible cloud platform to 
accommodate fluctuating volumes and work to optimize integrations with 
our legacy systems. CA is also improving backend services, such as our 
integrations with passport printing and archival systems, to simplify 
current processes and reduce pain points.

    Question. Did Consular Affairs approach private U.S. companies when 
developing the pilot program regarding best practices?

    Answer. The Online Passport Renewal system was developed by several 
private U.S. companies who worked collaboratively under contract with 
the Bureau of Consular Affairs. The Bureau also consulted with other 
governments that have implemented online passport systems.

    Question. Did Consular Affairs see an increase or a reduction in 
the rate of denial or suspended renewal applications for those 
submitted via the online pilot programs as compared to the standard 
renewal process (excluding renewals received via the ``Hand-Carry 
Unlimited Adult Renewal Lockbox program)?

    Answer. During the Online Passport Renewal (OPR) pilot, Consular 
Affairs saw no meaningful distinction between the rates of suspension 
or of denial for OPR versus paper applications. We are using lessons 
learned from the pilot to update the photo quality tool to limit 
unacceptable photographs, which was the most common reason for 
suspension.

    Question. When does the Department plan to re-offer the online 
passport renewal system?

    Answer. The Department is targeting the end of calendar year 2023 
to launch the new version of Online Passport Renew.

    Question. International visitors to the U.S. are vital to the U.S. 
economy, with some estimates forecasting the U.S. will lose $12 billion 
in 2023 due to international travelers being unable to obtain a visitor 
visa in time to travel to the U.S. To ensure visa issuance integrity, 
deter fraud, mitigate human trafficking, and protect the homeland, how 
many Consular Sections overseas have integrated Assistant Regional 
Security Officer-Investigators (ARSO-I) into their operations?

    Answer. As of June 2023, there are 133 Diplomatic Security agent 
positions assigned to this program at 117 posts in 83 countries.

    Question. How many Consular Sections do not have an ARSO-I assigned 
to them?

    Answer. As of May 24, the number of Consular Sections whose status 
is open for emergency and/or routine consular services is 225. Of 
those, 108 do not have an ARSO-I assigned.

    Question. Does Consular Affairs plan to expand the ARSO-I program 
in the future?

    Answer. The Overseas Criminal Investigations Program, formerly 
known as the ARSO-I program, is jointly managed by CA's Office of Fraud 
Prevention Programs (CA/FPP) and Diplomatic Security's Office of 
Overseas Criminal Investigations (DS/OCI). CA/FPP and DS/OCI 
collaborate in evaluating the efficacy of current programs and gauging 
the potential for success of a new program at a post.
                                 ______
                                 

               Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions 
                     Submitted by Senator Tim Kaine

    Status of Recommendations from OIG Report: The Department's Office 
of the Inspector General's most recent semi-annual report to Congress 
released in May shows that six recommendations from the [November] 2021 
report, Review of the Bureau of Consular Affairs' ConsularOne 
Modernization Program-Significant Deployment Delays Continue, continue 
to remain open. This program has faced significant delays and cost 
overruns.
    Please provide an update on the status and timeline for resolution 
for each of the open recommendations:

    Question. Recommendation 2: The Bureau of Consular Affairs should 
clearly define the ConsularOne modernization program and Consular 
Systems Modernization, including its components, projects, supporting 
contracts, and the associated total cost of those contracts for both 
efforts.

    Answer. On January 24, 2023, the OIG recognized the progress made 
by the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) towards implementing 
Recommendation 2 and notified the Department that the recommendation 
would be closed pending receipt of a signed memo from the CA Assistant 
Secretary approving the new definition of Consular Systems 
Modernization (CSM). CA provided the signed memo to the OIG on April 
20, 2023.

    Question. Recommendation 4: The Bureau of Consular Affairs should 
require the Office of Consular Systems and Technology to implement an 
internal communication and collaboration plan.

    Answer. On January 24, 2023, the OIG recognized the progress made 
by the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) towards implementing 
Recommendation 4 and notified the Department that the recommendation 
would be considered for closure pending receipt of a cleared 
communication plan. CA provided a cleared communication plan on April 
28 and committed to routinely evaluate the effectiveness and impact of 
the plan to determine if updates are needed.

    Question. Recommendation 6: The Bureau of Consular Affairs should 
require the Office of Consular Systems and Technology to maintain 
documented management approvals for all information systems throughout 
the systems development lifecycle process in accordance with Department 
standards.

    Answer. On January 24, 2023, the OIG recognized the progress made 
by the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) towards implementing 
Recommendation 6 and notified the Department that further clarification 
was required on who approved work plans associated with the systems 
development lifecycle process outlined by CA in an earlier response. CA 
provided the OIG the requested documentation on April 28.

    Question. Recommendation 8: The Bureau of Consular Affairs should 
require the Office of Consular Systems and Technology to conduct 
independent information system security assessments.

    Answer. On January 24, 2023, the OIG recognized the progress made 
by the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) towards implementing 
Recommendation 8 and sought clarification on who will conduct 
independent information system assessments for CA. On April 28, 2023, 
CA notified the OIG that the Information Resources Management (IRM) 
Bureau is exploring an enterprise-wide contract that could satisfy this 
requirement and is committed to working with CA on a contract solution 
separate from the vehicle that aids in the selection and implementation 
of security controls.

    Question. Recommendation 10: The Bureau of Consular Affairs, in 
coordination with the Bureau of Information Resource Management, should 
complete the assessment and authorization process for the Office of 
Consular Systems and Technology's information systems with expired 
authorizations to operate.

    Answer. On January 24, 2023, the OIG recognized the progress made 
by the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) towards implementing 
Recommendation 10 and notified the Department that the recommendation 
would be considered closed once CA provided copies of approved 
Authorizations to Operate (ATO) for all CA systems. CA notified the OIG 
on April 28 that the number of expired ATOs had been reduced to 10 as 
of April 19. The total number of expired ATOs has been reduced to three 
as of June 9. CA continues to make progress toward closing this 
recommendation.

    Question. Recommendation 11: The Bureau of Consular Affairs should 
perform annual security controls assessments for the Office of Consular 
Systems and Technology's information systems in accordance with 
Department standards.

    Answer. On January 24, 2023, the OIG recognized the progress made 
by the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) towards implementing 
Recommendation 11. CA continues to make steady progress in completing 
Annual Controls Assessments (ACAs), completing five in 2023 thus far. 
CA continues to work through remaining ACAs, prioritizing High Systems 
and Moderate Non-Cloud Systems. CA has requested additional personnel 
and resources to meet competing priority mandates.
                                 ______
                                 

               Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions 
                    Submitted by Senator Todd Young

    Question. With the coming increase in nonimmigrant visa fees, can 
you please expand on how the Department plans to monitor and analyze 
the effects of these adjustments on visa application rates and 
patterns?

    Answer. The Bureau of Consular Affairs tracks data on visa 
adjudication volumes. While we do not anticipate any impact on visa 
applications due to implementation of the new fees, we will continue 
tracking visa application data and analyze any trends to determine 
possible connections to the fee increases.

    Question. Beyond requesting expenditure authorities, what 
strategies does your bureau have in place to create more sustainable 
fee structures to avoid future shortfalls like we saw during the 
pandemic?

    Answer. The Bureau of Consular Affairs' (CA) ``fee structures'' are 
governed by the general and specific legislative authorities that exist 
for each fee. CA does not have the authority to set any of its fees 
above cost, and it also lacks the authority to retain and spend certain 
fees. As a result, without adjustments in authorities it is difficult 
to create sustainable structures that would avoid shortfalls resulting 
from significant declines in demand. The current expanded expenditure 
authorities granted by Congress are critical, because they afford 
consular operations the flexibility to balance spending.

    Question. What ongoing efforts are being undertaken to modernize 
the visa application system or introduce automation to streamline the 
process?

    Answer. Bureau of Consular Affairs' (CA) innovations to modernize 
include improvements to interview waiver processes, while maintaining 
national security, applicant scheduling, applicant correspondence, and 
internal processing. CA is using technology tools to increase 
efficiencies across the full range of consular operations. CA is also 
developing a roadmap for extensive modernization of visa-related 
systems. Current initiatives include paperless (digital) visas, 
domestic revalidation of work visas, and faster and more secure 
applicant screening through the National Vetting Center.

    Question. How does the State Department determine resource 
allocation and staffing levels for consular offices to handle 
nonimmigrant visa applications?

    Answer. Data analysts in the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) use 
historical and current nonimmigrant visa (NIV) data to create staffing 
projection tools which estimate the levels of demand that a given post 
will likely encounter over the next several years. CA updates the data 
in those projection tools annually. In addition to the data analysis, 
CA receives yearly inputs directly from posts to finely tune NIV demand 
estimates. From those estimates, CA determines how many adjudicators a 
given post will need to meet projected demand.

    Question. How does State work with DHS to speed up processing of 
pending immigrant visa petitions?

    Answer. The Department collaborates with DHS on digitization 
efforts. Since 2020, DHS has digitally transferred family-based 
immigrant visa (IV) petitions for beneficiaries abroad to the 
Department for processing, eliminating the need for manual data entry 
or mailed paper petitions. The Department and DHS are working to 
modernize other petition types. The Department's National Visa Center 
has eliminated its processing backlogs, and most overseas consular 
sections have little to no backlog for IV appointments.

    Question. When does the State Department plan to re-launch its 
Online Passport Renewal program?

    Answer. The State Department plans to re-launch the Online Passport 
Renewal program by the end of 2023. We received more than 500,000 
applications during our public pilot from August 2022 to February 2023. 
We are incorporating customer feedback and lessons learned to update 
OPR for an expected public release.
                                 ______
                                 

               Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions 
                   Submitted by Senator Bill Hagerty

    Question. Registered Nurse Visa Backlog: According to the Bureau of 
Labor and Statistics, the Registered Nurse workforce is expected to 
require nearly 200,000 additional full-time employees over the next 
decade while projecting as many retirements per year over the same 
period. Many organizations have raised awareness around the nursing 
workforce crisis taking place in the U.S.
    The Tennessee Hospital Association partnered with a firm that 
produces workforce reports for the Department of Health and Human 
Services to determine the workforce shortages in my state. Tennessee 
currently has a nursing shortage of nearly 16,000 full-time employees 
which is preventing patients in my state from receiving care to the 
fullest extent in some cases. Our sites of care are not able to 
adequately treat the demand of patients because our hospitals cannot 
staff all beds in our facilities, long-term care and skilled nursing 
facilities cannot accept post-acute care patients after their hospital 
stays because of workforce shortages, and the health care workforce 
shortages have caused wage inflation that is not financially 
sustainable to our health care providers.
    The Deans and Directors of post-secondary institutions in Tennessee 
have reported that enrollment has decreased for health professions over 
the past decade while the retirement age of Tennesseans will increase 
by 75 percent over the next decade. There will be a shortage in health 
care workforce supply that won't be able to meet the demand of health 
care needed by an aging population in Tennessee.
    International workers who obtain EB-3 Visas contribute to meeting 
the needs of patients and healthcare facilities in my state. Currently, 
the process for employers is extensive, cumbersome, and prolonged.
    Assistant Secretary Bitter: What opportunities exist to streamline 
this process? And will you agree to work with my office on examining 
these suggestions?

    Answer. We have issued 96 percent more EB-3 visas to date this 
fiscal year than we did during the same period in pre-pandemic FY 2019. 
As required by law, the process starts with the Department of Labor, 
proceeds to USCIS, and then comes to the Department of State. We have 
ongoing efforts to modernize the transfer of approved petitions from 
USCIS to our National Visa Center. The combined total number of EB-3 
visas used annually by the Department, and by USCIS for domestic 
adjustments, is capped by statute. I welcome the opportunity to engage 
with you and your office.

    Question. PERM Labor Certification: Is there a way to centralize 
the PERM Labor Certification per state or per industry when a staffing 
crisis is at hand rather than the process being per employer?

    Answer. I respectfully refer you to the Department of Labor, which 
has authority over labor certification.

    Question. What portions of this step can be eliminated or 
streamlined to shorten the processing time?

    Answer. I respectfully refer you to the Department of Labor, which 
has authority over labor certification.

    Question. Priority Dates: What can the Administration do to 
decrease wait times so that Priority Dates are expedited after a Form 
I-140 immigrant petition is submitted for those entering a health 
profession?

    Answer. The total number of EB-3 visas used by USCIS and the 
Department combined is capped by statute. Demand for EB-3 visas remains 
high, and to keep visa use within the maximum allowed under the FY 2023 
annual limit, EB-3 final action dates were established in May 2023. EB-
3 applicants with priority dates before the final action date have a 
visa available. The Department continues to monitor the situation and 
make adjustments as necessary. However, we cannot exceed the statutory 
annual limit.

    Question. Interviews for Immigrant Visas: Can interviews for 
immigrant visas be scheduled adjacent to the above steps to minimize 
processing time?

    Answer. A petition must be approved by USCIS before it is sent to 
the Department for immigrant visa processing. The beneficiary must then 
submit all required documents for visa processing, and these documents 
are reviewed by a consular officer. Scheduling immigrant visa 
appointments after a beneficiary has an approved petition, has a visa 
available, and has submitted required documents ensures the visa can be 
issued more quickly.

    Question. Can these interviews be expedited for health professions?

    Answer. We continue to be in close contact with our high-volume EB-
3 processing posts, such as Manila, to ensure they are prioritizing the 
processing of EB-3 cases. Our ability to prioritize visa interviews for 
nurses is limited to the number of EB-3 visas available in any given 
year, a number that is capped by statute.

    Question. If so, what would the Department of State require from 
the Department of Labor to support this determination?

    Answer. The Department of State does not require action by the 
Department of Labor to increase the throughput of EB-3 visas. The 
Department of State has issued 96 percent more EB-3 visas to date this 
fiscal year than we did during the same period in pre-pandemic FY 2019. 
In order for us to issue more EB-3 visas, Congress would need to raise 
the statutory annual cap on this visa category.
                                 ______
                                 

               Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions 
                  Submitted by Senator Tammy Duckworth

    Question. Background: Due to sanctions, American air carriers 
currently avoid transiting Russian airspace, which makes their flights 
to certain destinations longer and more expensive. As a result, some 
Americans choose to fly on foreign carriers that do not avoid Russian 
airspace. However, Americans may not be aware that there is a risk when 
flying a foreign carrier who may transit Russian airspace.
    In an illustrative example, on June 7, a San Francisco-bound Air 
India flight was forced to land in eastern Russia due to an engine 
issue. Getting stuck in Russia poses political and logistical 
challenges. Politically, we have seen Russia unfairly jail Americans 
and use them as bargaining chips in bilateral negotiations. 
Logistically, the imposition of sanctions means it is difficult to get 
airplane parts and mechanics into Russia to fix whatever mechanical 
issue may have required the unscheduled landing. This means that what 
would be a brief travel pause in other contexts could extend into a 
much longer delay, with greater inconvenience. This is ultimately a 
safety issue for American travelers.
    What was the State Department's role in assisting the dozens of 
American citizens aboard the Air India flight--both to ensure their 
short-term welfare while in Russia, but also their ability to get back 
to the United States?

    Answer. The Department closely monitored Air India's emergency 
landing in Magadan, Russia on June 6. The Department obtained a 
passenger manifest listing U.S. citizen passengers. No U.S. citizens, 
family members, or congressional representatives requested consular 
assistance. The Air India aircraft was replaced within 48 hours and 
passengers made their onward travel to San Francisco.

    Question. What action, if any, is the State Department taking to 
ensure American travelers understand the risk they face by boarding a 
foreign carrier's flight whose route crosses through Russian airspace? 
Likewise, is the State Department coordinating with any other federal 
agencies in pursuit of this goal?

    Answer. The Department closely tracks third country air carrier 
overflights of Russia on routes to and from the United States with 
interagency colleagues to identify potential responses consistent with 
domestic and international legal obligations. The travel advisory for 
Russia remains at a Level 4, DO NOT TRAVEL and notes that U.S. Embassy 
personnel are generally not permitted to travel on Russian air 
carriers. The Department believes foreign carriers that overfly Russia 
should notify prospective passengers of any potential risks.
                                 ______
                                 

               Responses of Ms. Rena Bitter to Questions 
                     Submitted by Senator Tim Scott

    Question. Background: The Bureau of Consular Affairs is facing a 
significant backlog of nonimmigrant visa applications at various posts 
around the world. I have been told that the average wait times for 
first-time visitor visas from top inbound markets is 400+ days.
    To address this backlog, I understand that consular officers are 
required to process an arbitrary figure of 120 nonimmigrant visa 
interviews per day--which nets to an average of 3.5 minutes per 
interview, based on an 8-hour workday with a 1-hour break.
    While I believe more should be done to address the current 
backlog--especially as the American travel industry faces a potential 
loss of $7 billion this year--I also believe that national security 
should remain the top priority for consular officers as they consider 
nonimmigrant visa applications.
    Can you confirm that this figure adequately reflects the 
expectations set for consular officers? If so, how was this figure 
determined?

    Answer. National security is our highest priority when adjudicating 
U.S. visa applications. To ensure that consular adjudicators take 
sufficient time to thoroughly vet each visa application, the Department 
instructs posts to schedule no more than 120 nonimmigrant visa 
interviews per consular adjudicator per day. This is only a guideline 
for posts, which determine their interviewing capacity based on local 
conditions.

    Question. Do you believe that 3.5 minutes per interview is enough 
time for consular officers to adequately screen nonimmigrant visa 
applicants for national security risks?

    Answer. National security is our top priority when adjudicating 
visa applications. Consular officers are trained to examine all 
available information--including from consular and interagency 
databases, the visa application, and the applicant's statements--to 
make an informed decision about whether the person is eligible for the 
visa. In addition to the interview, every visa applicant undergoes 
extensive security screening which draws on information from the full 
range of U.S. Government agencies, including thorough screening against 
U.S. law enforcement and counterterrorism databases.

    Question. What additional steps is the Bureau taking to address the 
outstanding backlog of nonimmigrant visa applications?

    Answer. Long wait times for interviews apply only to first-time 
tourist visa applicants--a very small percentage of entries to the 
United States. In all other categories important to the U.S. economy--
students, temporary workers, repeat travelers, and maritime crew--wait 
times are at pre-pandemic levels or lower.

    Question. Background: In your testimony, you characterized the 
recent evacuation of 2,000 American citizens and their family members 
from Sudan as a ``very successful multinational effort under the most 
difficult circumstances.''
    I understand that evacuating citizens and personnel in a time of 
crisis is an incredibly risky and complicated endeavor. However, I 
cannot say I agree with your assessment that our efforts in Khartoum 
were ``very successful,'' especially when compared to the ability of 
other countries to safely evacuate their citizens by air days before 
the Department began to assist American citizens with an over-land 
evacuation:
    Most analysts believe the recent outbreak of hostilities in Sudan 
was expected and easily predicted. If so, what efforts did the Bureau 
of Consular Affairs take to coordinate with other bureaus in the 
Department to plan for an effective response for U.S. citizens before 
the violence erupted?

    Answer. The Department of State's Travel Advisory for Sudan was 
assessed at Level 4, the highest level, and advised U.S. citizens Do 
Not Travel to Sudan since August 2021. Consular messaging further 
advised U.S. citizens to have contingency plans to depart Sudan that 
did not rely on U.S. Government assistance. Every post, including 
Embassy Khartoum, has evacuation plans and regularly performs drills 
and exercises on crisis scenarios that include assistance to U.S. 
citizens.

    Question. The highest priority for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, 
as stated by the Department, is ``to protect the lives and serve the 
interests of U.S. citizens abroad.'' Does the Bureau have adequate 
contingency plans in place to fulfil this mission in the event of a 
crisis at high-risk posts around the world, particularly in Africa?

    Answer. Crisis planning is an interagency priority and the Bureau 
of Consular Affairs works across the Department and interagency to plan 
for contingencies involving private U.S. citizens. Our top priority is 
providing timely and accurate information about conditions and changing 
circumstances so Americans can make informed decisions about their 
safety and security. During a crisis, our assistance may include 
documenting citizens and family members for travel, assisting people in 
arranging for commercial departure, issuing repatriation loans, or 
arranging noncommercial options to evacuate U.S. citizens.

    Question. As the 2023 summer travel season begins, Americans still 
face incredibly long wait times for passport processing--systemic 
delays that began 3 years ago at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    On May 31, I joined my South Carolina delegation colleagues in 
pinning a letter to Secretary Blinken expressing concern over this 
backlog and a desire to see the Charleston Passport Center offer in-
person passport application appointments, to help reduce the burden on 
other regional passport centers.
    In the letter, we highlighted report language that was included in 
the FY23 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill that required 
the Department to consult with Congress on the need for in-person 
constituent appointments at the Charleston Passport Center.
    To my knowledge, member-level consultations with the Senate 
Appropriations Committee have yet to occur and the Department has yet 
to provide a plan to address the need for in-person services in 
Charleston:
    Please provide an update on what steps is the Bureau of Consular 
Affairs is taking to address this issue.

    Answer. The Charleston Passport Agency is located on the Federal 
Law Enforcement Training Center government compound, home to eight 
Department of State facilities and additional buildings used by other 
federal agencies. It is not accessible to the public. Ninety-four 
percent of applicants renew their passports by mail or visit one of the 
over 7,400 acceptance facilities, including the 20 facilities located 
within 60 miles of Charleston. I believe that modernizing and 
streamlining the passport process provides greater benefit to the 
traveling public and would welcome the opportunity to provide a member-
level consultation.

                                  [all]