[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 6, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2201-S2202]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CARDIN (for himself, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Lieberman, and 
        Mr. Kerry):
  S. 744. A bill to authorize certain Department of State personnel, 
who are responsible for examining and processing United States passport 
applications, to access relevant information in Federal, State, and 
other records and databases, for the purpose of verifying the identity 
of a passport applicant and detecting passport fraud, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, this weekend I know that Marylanders will 
be taking advantage of Passport Day this Saturday, April 9. During 
these weekend hours at our passport acceptance facilities in Maryland, 
my constituents will have the ability to renew their passports or apply 
for a new passport, as we get ready for the summer travel season.
  When Marylanders apply for and ultimately receive their passports, I 
want them to continue to have confidence that the U.S. passport is the 
gold standard for identification. It certifies

[[Page S2202]]

an individual's identity and U.S. citizenship, and allows the passport 
holder to travel in and out of the United States and to foreign 
countries. It allows the passport holder to obtain further 
identification documents, and to set up bank accounts.
  The U.S. Government simply cannot allow U.S. passports to be issued 
in this country on the basis of fraudulent documents. There is too much 
at stake. Unfortunately, hearings that I have chaired in the last 
Congress have convinced me that we have serious vulnerabilities in our 
passport issuance process that need to be closed quickly.
  Nearly two years ago, on May 5, 2009, I chaired a Judiciary Terrorism 
Subcommittee hearing entitled ``The Passport Issuance Process: Closing 
the Door to Fraud.'' During the hearing last year, we learned about a 
Government Accountability Office, GAO, undercover investigation that 
had been requested by Senators Kyl and Feinstein to test the 
effectiveness of the passport issuance process, and to determine 
whether malicious individuals such as terrorists, spies, or other 
criminals could use counterfeit documents to obtain a genuine U.S. 
passport. What we learned from GAO was that ``terrorists or criminals 
could steal an American citizen's identity, use basic counterfeiting 
skills to create fraudulent documents for that identity, and obtain a 
genuine U.S. passport.'' But that 2009 GAO report was not the first 
time that problems with the passport issuance process were identified. 
In 2005 and 2007, GAO also brought these issues to light.
  Vulnerabilities in the passport issuance process are very serious 
because it can have a profound impact on the national security of the 
United States.
  A new GAO undercover investigation that I requested, along with 
Senators Kyl, Feinstein, Lieberman and Collins, also revealed that 
while some improvements have been made by the State Department, the 
passport issuance process is still susceptible to fraud. A Judiciary 
Terrorism Subcommittee hearing that I chaired in July of 2010 revealed 
that the State Department issued five additional passports on the basis 
of fraudulent identity documents that had been submitted by undercover 
GAO agents.
  As a result, today I am reintroducing the Passport Identity 
Verification Act, or PIVA. This legislation is co-sponsored by Senators 
Feinstein, Lieberman, and Kerry. It is a common-sense solution that 
will give the State Department the legal authorities that it needs to 
access relevant information contained in federal, state, and other 
databases that can be used to verify the identity of every passport 
applicant, and to detect passport fraud, without extending the time 
that the State Department takes to approve passports. The legislation 
also requires the State Department to promulgate regulations to limit 
access to this information, and to ensure that personnel involved in 
the passport issuance process only access this information for 
authorized purposes. These are very important privacy and security 
protections in this legislation.
  The legislation also requires the Secretary of State to conduct a 
formal study examining whether biometric information and technology can 
be used to enhance the ability to verify the identity of a passport 
applicant and to detect passport fraud.
  I understand that the American people can become concerned when their 
travel plans, whether for leisure or business, are linked to their 
ability to obtain a passport in a timely fashion. My legislation would 
not lengthen the average amount of time it takes U.S. citizens to 
obtain passports. We have got to get this right, and it is not simply a 
question of process, techniques, and training. We need to make sure 
that the agencies that are responsible for processing passport 
application documents are concerned about national security as well as 
customer service, and we need to make sure they have the legal 
authorities, the resources, and the technology they need to verify the 
identity of a passport applicant and to detect passport fraud.
  We already have much of the technology and the information to prevent 
such issuance of genuine U.S. passports based on fraudulent documents 
or information. The Passport Identity Verification Act will 
dramatically improve the State Department's ability to detect passport 
fraud, and strengthen the integrity of every American's passport.
                                 ______