President George W. Bush on Tuesday signed a bill authorizing the State Department to raise the price of a U.S. passport.
H.R. 4501, the Passport Services Enhancement Act of 2005, provides that the “Secretary of State may by regulation establish and collect a surcharge on applicable fees for the filing of each application for a passport in order to cover the costs of meeting the increased demand for passports as a result of actions taken to comply with section 7209(b) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.”
That act states that U.S. citizens must have a passport to re-enter the U.S. from countries such as Canada and Mexico from which a passport was not previously required of U.S. citizens. Called the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the requirement for U.S. citizens to carry passports when re-entering the U.S. takes effect December 31, 2006, for those traveling by air or sea, and December 31, 2007, for those traveling by land.
The surcharge is intended to offset the costs related to increased demand for passports as a result of this change. The surcharge has a sunset provision, as well; it expires September 30, 2010.
The State Department has not yet decided on an amount for the surcharge or when it may go into effect.
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Joe
Jan 27, 2006
Just to clarify the statement that the US is requiring a passport to re-enter US from Canada or Mexico; you don’t have to have a passport, although that is recommended, but you do need some sort of gov’t issued identification such as Driver’s license or gov’t issued birthcertificate – copy or faxes of are accepted.
Michael Hampton
Jan 28, 2006
Joe, read carefully. When this program goes into effect, you will need a passport to re-enter the U.S. from Canada or Mexico.
Oct 20, 2006
State Department proposes $20 RFID passport cards - Homeland Stupidity
imtiaz rasheed
Nov 08, 2006
How do you renew your passport when it expires to make it new again
Kevin Jaynes
Jan 21, 2007
Yeah I bet this won’t stop illegal immigrants from crossing right over our land borders though. This is probably just a way for the government to babble on about how they really care about border security when they do nothing about it and punish our Border Patrol Agents when they do try to apprehend illegals. The real thing is they want to impose more tyranny over us than they already can with the I.R.S. Income Ripoff Service!
Mar 26, 2007
Washington state accepts REAL ID, gets bonus - Homeland Stupidity