WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today delivered the following opening statement at this morning’s full Committee hearing, “State Department Services for the American People: An Overview of Consular Affairs and Programs.” Testifying before the Committee was State Department Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the Honorable Rena Bitter.
“Many Americans’ only interaction with the State Department is getting or renewing a passport leading to some of those frustrating phone calls,” said Chairman Menendez. “Whether it is a last-minute family emergency or their first international trip since COVID restrictions were lifted, Americans should not be experiencing such extended wait times, especially during the busy summer travel season.”
A copy of the Chairman’s remarks as delivered are provided below.
“This Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing will come to order.
When Americans had to be evacuated around the world at the start of the COVID pandemic, Consular Affairs officers worked day and night to help them get home.
When grandparents who are nationals of another country want to visit their American grandchildren, Consular Affairs officers interview them at posts abroad and process their visa applications.
When American citizens like Brittney Griner are detained or arrested unjustly abroad, Consular Affairs officers are often the first to visit them in prison.
And when my constituents in New Jersey and those of every member on this committee need to renew their passports, Consular Affairs officers process their applications.
So, Assistant Secretary Bitter, while I know your team probably gets more angry phone calls than other Foreign Service Officers, I want to start by saying we do appreciate the work you all do, often under incredibly demanding circumstances.
For better or worse, many Americans’ only interaction with the State Department is getting or renewing a passport leading to some of those frustrating phone calls.
I do not need to tell you that the current backlog has people waiting upwards of three months for their passports, not even including shipping time.
In March, Secretary Blinken said you were getting close to half a million passport applications a week, putting you on track to break last year’s record of processing almost 22 million passports.
Even so, my office has been inundated with calls from constituents concerned about receiving their passports before they travel.
Last week we had nearly 50 open cases helping constituents get their passports.
Whether it is a last-minute family emergency or their first international trip since COVID restrictions were lifted, Americans should not be experiencing such extended wait times, especially during the busy summer travel season.
So, I applaud Secretary Blinken’s decision to establish a task force to speed up wait times.
I know the Department is hiring more staff.
And I know the staff you do have are working overtime.
But we need find out what else we can do to achieve the goal we all want.
What are you doing to improve the online passport renewal initiative?
I would also like to hear about your work processing visas.
Consular Affairs officers in embassies overseas are the sole people responsible for conducting visa interviews.
Very often I’m told by ambassadors that Consular Officers have the final say on what visas are.
Not only are they often overloaded and work long hours, their work is sometimes literally life or death.
Take the recent success story of Sima Barakzai, an Afghan woman whose son served as a combat interpreter helping U.S. Special Forces hunt down the Taliban.
Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, she and her family were targeted by the new government.
They left notices at her abandoned home and questioned her neighbors.
For two years my office worked with Consular Affairs to help Sima and her family reach the United States as promised.
Thankfully just last week, she finally touched down in San Francisco after a tumultuous departure from Pakistan.
And there are many more stories, some heroic and some more mundane.
Airlifting someone for medical relief or getting a grandmother to her grandchild’s baptism or bris. And some more practical.
Helping American businesses get the employees they need for success, whether hiring for Mory’s Piers in New Jersey or a data engineer assisting a new startup.
Making sure international students get visas to attend American universities in a timely manner.
Because in addition to the billions of dollars these students bring to our communities, they also enrich the fabric of our nation.
I know you’ve been under strain and I want to hear what, if any, additional resources you need to continue to provide these vital services.
We have to ensure the United States remains the top destination for the world’s smartest brains and hardest workers.
And we need to make sure we keep our nation’s promises not only to those who served with our soldiers and in our diplomatic efforts, but to those wrongfully detained Americans who deserve regular consular access.
Putin’s government has twice now refused consular access to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
That is simply unacceptable, and Assistant Secretary Bitter I urge you and the State Department to keep pushing Moscow on this point.
I will just close by saying I often get calls on a Thursday that says, “I just looked at my passport and I need to travel to a wedding on Sunday.”
And I say, “Well I am not Houdini.”
We try to help, and your New York office has incredibly tremendous work effort that has been very helpful.
We actually held a workshop, “Look Before You Leave,” so that people look at their passports well before they are traveling, and find out whether or not they are in need of a new passport, because not only does it need to be valid, but it has to be valid for at least six-months beyond.
Most people do not know that, and so we work all the time trying to make that case back at home.
I appreciate the work that you do, and we just want to see how we can make it all do better.
A better sense of all the good the Consular Affairs does for the country is part of what I hope for this hearing to be, but also how we can do better.
With that, I turn to the Ranking Member.”
Remarks edited lightly for clarity.
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