Editorial: You want it when?

Monday, June 11, 2007 | 7:04 a.m.

The Bush administration has eased new passport requirements for Americans traveling to foreign countries because federal officials say they were not prepared for the massive increase in passport applications.

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which took effect in January, requires that U.S. citizens show passports when flying to and from Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada and Bermuda. Previously, Americans returning to the U.S. from those nations could gain entry with a valid driver's license.

As soon as the new requirements took effect the State Department was hit with a deluge of passport applications - as many as 18,000 per week. The backlog now numbers in the millions. Even residents who paid an extra $60 to expedite the process have waited up to three months for their passports, say members of Congress who have fielded thousands of calls from angry constituents forced to delay or cancel trips.

On Friday the White House announced that until the end of September, people could use a State Department receipt showing that they have applied for a passport along with government-issued ID, such as a driver's license, for traveling in the Western Hemisphere. It's about time some common sense prevailed. The new requirements have been on the books since 2004 when Congress passed them as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. Yet federal officials have acted as if the increase in applications caught them by surprise.

Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., has said that to require more people to have passports and then to delay issuing them because of failing to plan for an unavoidable increase in requests "is right up there in the stupid column."

We couldn't agree more.