NORWICH, Conn. (AP) — The U.S. State Department has ordered some public libraries nationwide to stop processing passport applications, disrupting a longstanding service that librarians have relied on in their communities and that has run smoothly for years.
The agency that regulates U.S. passports began issuing cease-and-desist orders to nonprofit libraries in late fall, informing them that they were not authorized to participate in the Passport Acceptance Facility program beginning Friday.
“We still get calls every day looking for that service,” said Kathleen Speciale, executive director of the Otis Library in Norwich, Connecticut, which offered passport services for 18 years but closed in November after receiving the letter. “Our community was very used to us offering this.”
A State Department spokesman said federal laws and regulations “clearly prohibit nongovernmental organizations” from collecting and maintaining fees for passport applications. Government libraries are not affected.
The spokesperson did not respond to questions about why this is now an issue and exactly how many libraries are affected by the cease and desist order. In a statement, they said, “Passport Services has more than 7,500 approval facilities across the country and the number of libraries found to be ineligible is less than one percent of our total network.”
The American Library Association estimates that about 1,400 mostly nonprofit public libraries nationwide could be affected, or about 15% of all public libraries, depending on how many offer passport services.
Democratic and Republican members of Congress from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland are pushing back, sending a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month urging him to extend the existing program until Congress comes up with a permanent solution.
“At a time of increasing demand for passports, libraries are one of the most accessible passport acceptance facilities, especially for working families and rural residents,” the members wrote.
The lawmakers’ letter said real ID requirements would mean people would have to travel long distances, take unpaid time off work or forgo passports as demand rises. If Republicans in Congress enact strict new voting rules, citizens will need their passports or birth certificates to register. Even people who fear immigration agents are carrying passports to prove their citizenship.
They said the change is particularly disruptive in their states, where many public libraries are structured as nonprofit organizations. They predicted that some libraries that benefit financially from passport processing fees may have to lay off staff, cut programs or close their doors if they are not allowed to continue passport services.
Public libraries are organized differently in each state. 85% of public libraries in Pennsylvania are non-profit organizations, versus departments of local municipal government. In Maine, it’s 56%; Rhode Island, 54%, New York, 47% and Connecticut, 46%, according to the American Library Association.
Pennsylvania Reps. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat, and John Joyce, a Republican, have proposed bipartisan legislation that would allow 501(c)(3) nonprofit public libraries to continue serving as passport acceptance facilities by amending the Passport Act of 1920.
Dean, who first learned of the policy change from his district’s library, which has provided passport services for 20 years, called the State Department’s interpretation of the law “nonsense.”
In Joyce’s rural, south-central Pennsylvania district, the Marysville-Rye library is one of two Passport facilities serving the 556-square-mile Perry County, according to the letter to Rubio. Now only the district court is left.
The State Department notes that 99% of the US population lives within 20 miles of a designated passport processing location, such as a post office, county clerk’s office or library authorized to accept personal passport applications.
“If removing an ineligible facility affects passport services, we will work to identify new eligible program partners in the affected area,” an agency spokesperson said.
But Speciale said Norwich Post Office often referred people to her library for passports when someone needed service outside regular hours or when children needed care and entertainment while their parents filled out the paperwork. Library staff also assisted applicants with language barriers.
“And now the burden is on them to do all this and it’s hard on them,” she said of the post office across the street. “I don’t know how they’re keeping up, to be honest, because it was a popular service for us.”
