1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Passport Application, Staffing, and Service Process Optimization Reform and Transparency Act or the PASSPORT Act . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Providing passport services is a vital function of the United States Government that affects the lives, plans, and finances of millions of Americans. Congress has vested authority in the State Department to grant, issue, and verify United States passports. (2) The number of passports the Department of State issues on an annual basis has increased substantially since the mid-1990s, with the Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs issuing a record 21,900,000 passports in fiscal year 2022, nearly quadruple the 5,500,000 passports issued in fiscal year 1996. The Department of State expects to set a new record in fiscal year 2023 amid what Secretary of State Antony Blinken said was unprecedented demand , with the Department receiving 30 percent to 40 percent more passport applications weekly than in 2022. (3) In 2023, a number of factors led to a surge in passport applications and delays in processing—including pent-up demand for passports among the American public following the relaxing of COVID–19-related international travel restriction, complications with the limited release of the online passport renewal process, attrition within the passport adjudication workforce following the onset of the COVID–19 pandemic and continued in-person work required, and growth in the percentage of American citizens who possess a passport. (4) The Department of State’s published processing times for routine passport applications increased from 6 to 9 weeks in January 2023 to 10 to 13 weeks by March 2023, and for expedited passport applications increased from 3 to 5 weeks to 7 to 9 weeks in the same time frame. (5) In July 2023, the Department of State indicated it was working to return processing times to pre-pandemic levels, which as of December 2019 were 6 to 8 weeks for routine applications and 2 to 3 weeks for expedited