Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy says Americans will not be required to use passports to cross the Canadian border.
Leahy says the now-Democratic controlled Congress will thwart the plan by the federal government to require passports when Americans and Canadians to cross into the other country.
He says he wants the Bush administration to go back to the drawing board to develop an affordable and secure alternative to passports.
Many Vermont officials fear the passport requirement could have made it too difficult to cross the border, and that could have had devastating effects on cross border business interests.