Representative Issa in the CapitolRepresentative Darrell Issa at the Capitol. Photo courtesy of his office

representative Darrell Issa has asked the State Department to “crank up” passport application processing immediately when San Diego resumes overseas travel.

In one Letter to Foreign Minister Antony Blinken, Issa urged the State Department to “increase resources by resuming full staffing, adding extra hours of service and operations to support customers, and providing the support and resources necessary to relieve overburdened staff and the backlog of passport applications remove”.

The Traffic safety authority said it screened 2.02 million passengers at U.S. airports on Friday, the highest number since March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic reduced travel demand.

“Fortunately, Americans are back on the road and resumption of travel is essential to our national economic recovery,” Issa wrote in the June 18 letter. “The reaction of the federal government to the growing backlog of US passport applications is unfortunately indifferent at best.”

Issa, who represents the 50th ward in east San Diego County, said voters were grateful for the work the passport processing staff had done, but more help was needed immediately.

“Only the federal government can fix this problem immediately to restore international travel,” he wrote.

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