U.S. Legislators Renew Push to Delay Passports at Canadian Border

American legislators are renewing their push to delay requiring passports at the Canada-U.S. border until June 2009 by slipping the measure into a critical spending bill.

But the Homeland Security Department says it's determined to move forward with the new security requirement next summer as planned, regardless of how Congress votes. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the $516-billion measure funding 14 cabinet agencies and troops in Afghanistan, setting the stage for a year-end budget deal with the White House.

President George W. Bush has signaled he'll ultimately sign the measure – assuming up to $40 billion more is provided by the Senate for the Iraq war – despite opposition from Republican conservatives. In an unusual two-step, legislators first voted 253-154 to approve the omnibus spending bill; they then voted 206-201 to add $31 billion for troops in Afghanistan to the measure. The combined $516-billion spending package is set for Senate debate on Tuesday. Canada has long supported a delay in the passport requirement to ensure the security system is properly in place, avoiding nightmarish traffic lineups and long wait times for passports.

The extra time was written into the House bill by New York Democrat Louise Slaughter. She included a provision for withholding $75 million to implement the plan until officials report on the status of new identification cards and high-technology driver's licenses that are being developed as alternatives to passports.

“The traffic across our northern border is critical to our economy and we must never sacrifice our relationship with Canada with an ill-conceived attempt to increase border security,” said Slaughter. “Economic security and physical security are not mutually exclusive. We can, and must, have both.”

But Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said he doesn't believe the stalling measure will impede plans to implement the so-called Western Hemisphere and Travel Initiative at land and sea crossing starting next summer. “A delay in WHTI implementation would create the very type of chaos at the border that Congress has repeatedly urged our department to avoid,” Knocke said.

Canadian Embassy officials called the latest move on passports “a very positive step.” Ambassador Michael Wilson has been lobbying for more time for more than a year. “On the present timetable, Canadians and Americans do not have time to get the documents they will need,” Wilson said in an editorial published last week in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“Neither country can afford the kind of backlog that both passport agencies experienced last winter when the new ... requirements were implemented for air travellers.Many more travellers cross by land and there needs to be a realistic and transparent plan to ensure that legitimate tourism and trade can continue."

Wait times for passports were up to 12 weeks, from four to six weeks, in the United States before air passengers were required to use the documents in January.

The land and sea portion of the rule has already been delayed once to give U.S. officials more time to develop a passcard dubbed “passport lite” that will be cheaper to get. Several states and some provinces are interested in developing enhanced driver's licences that will contain proof of citizenship like passports. Last week, Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff called the high-technology licences a “win-win for security and convenience.”

Starting Jan. 31, the United States will require all Canadians to provide some proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate. Adults will also need a government-issued photo ID. Customs agents will no longer be allowed to simply ask people where they were born.