Congress is seeking to delay a new security rule requiring passports at all U.S. border crossings next year.
Lawmakers want to avoid a repeat of last summer’s vacation-killing backlog of passport applications.
The Bush administration says it opposes a delay and still plans to go forward with implementing the planned passport rule next summer.
Under a major end-of-the-year spending bill to be voted on this week, the border passport rule would be moved back even further, to no earlier than June 2009.
In border states, the new laws have raised concerns that local trade and tourism will suffer. In response, the State Department plans to create passcards which will cost less than half the nearly $100 charged for a new passport.