Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is calling on the State Department to resume processing passport applications.
His comments came Thursday in a series of tweets. Lankford, citing a major backlog of applications, said a temporary halt on processing passports cannot continue.
“Today I learned that the @StateDept hasn't processed a single passport application since March 19 — creating a 1.6 million backlog of applications," Lankford tweeted. "This is ridiculous and cannot continue.
“Private businesses, nonprofits, and other government offices have used technology and innovation to get the job done from afar over the past couple of months — anyone who could work from home has worked from home.
“There's no reason @StateDept couldn't have done the same thing. This is a major fumble and will hinder our economic recovery. I'll be on the phone with the @StateDept and my colleagues over the next few days to make sure they are doing the work on behalf of the American people.”
The State Department has not been issuing passports because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Only those who have life-or-death emergencies, for themselves or someone in their immediate family, including serious injury, illness or death, can be issued a passport, according to the State Department.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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