Thread: Travelers may get passport reprieve - Bye bye national secur

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... e=printart

Travelers could get passport reprieve
Senate passes bill delaying change
BY FAITH BREMNER
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

July 15, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Senate has approved giving U.S. and Canadian citizens a 17-month reprieve from a new requirement to show their passports every time they cross from Detroit to Ontario and other places.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., inserted a provision into the 2007 Homeland Security spending bill that would postpone the requirement until June 1, 2009. The Senate unanimously approved the bill Thursday. The House must still approve the change.

Without the change, the passport requirement will start Jan. 1, 2008, under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. U.S. and Canadian citizens will have to show a passport or some other secure identification and proof of citizenship when they enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Bermuda and Panama.

Currently, U.S. and Canadian citizens need show only a driver's license, a birth certificate or nothing at all to get into the United States.

Business groups located in border states praised Leahy's measure, saying it would give them more time to work with the federal government to come up with a cheaper, more convenient alternative to the passport.

They say they are concerned the passport requirement would discourage travel and cause traffic tie-ups at border crossings. Only 20% of Americans have passports, which cost $97 and can take up to six weeks to get.

They say they are concerned the passport requirement would discourage travel and cause traffic tie-ups at border crossings. Only 20% of Americans have passports, which cost $97 and can take up to six weeks to get.

Six weeks, huh?

I'm at eight weeks, and still waiting.