NORWICH, Conn. (AP) — The U.S. State Department has ordered certain public libraries nationwide to stop processing passport applications, disrupting a longstanding service that librarians say their communities have come to rely on and that has run smoothly for years.
The agency, which regulates US passports, began issuing cease and desist orders to nonprofit libraries of late, notifying them that they were no longer authorized to participate in the Passport Acceptance Facility program as of Friday.
“We still get calls every day looking for that service,” said Cathleen Special, executive director of the Otis Library in Norwich, Connecticut, where passport services were offered for 18 years but stopped in November after receiving the letter. “Our community has been so used to us offering this.”
A State Department spokesman said the order was issued because federal law and regulations “clearly prohibit nongovernmental organizations” from collecting and withholding passport application fees. Government-run libraries are not affected.
The spokesperson did not respond to questions about why it has now become 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 acceptance facilities throughout the country and the number of libraries found ineligible makes up less than one percent of our total network.”
The American Library Association estimates that about 1,400 mostly nonprofit public libraries nationwide could potentially be affected, or about 15% of all public libraries, depending on how many passport services they offer.
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 asking him to extend the existing program until Congress finds a permanent solution.
“At a time when the demand for passports is increasing, libraries are among the most accessible facilities for accepting passports, particularly for working families and rural residents,” the members wrote.
The lawmakers’ letter said people will have to travel long distances, take unpaid time off work or forgo getting a passport when demand is rising because of Real ID requirements. If Republicans in Congress impose strict new voting rules, citizens may need their passport or birth certificate to register. People fearing immigration agents are also increasingly carrying passports to confirm their citizenship.
They said the change is particularly disruptive for their states, where many public libraries are structured as non-profit entities. They predicted that some libraries, which benefit financially from passport processing fees, will have to lay off staff, cut programs or close their doors if they are not allowed to continue providing passport services.
Public libraries are organized differently in each state. In Pennsylvania 85% of public libraries are non-profit organizations, compared to a local municipal government department. In Maine, it is 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. A similar bill is pending in the Senate.
Dean, who first learned of the policy change from a library in her district that has provided passport services for 20 years, called the State Department’s interpretation of the law “nonsense.”
In the rural district of Joyce, in south-central Pennsylvania, the Marysville-Rye Library is one of only two passport facilities that serve the County of 556 square miles of Perry, according to the letter to Rubio. Now the county court will be the only option left.
The State Department noted 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 government-run library authorized to accept passport applications in person.
“If the removal of an ineligible facility affects passport services, we will work to identify new eligible program partners in the affected area,” the agency’s spokesperson said.
But Special said the Norwich post office had often referred people to its passport library when someone needed a service outside regular hours or had children who needed to be watched and entertained while their parent filled out the paperwork. Library staff also helped applicants with language barriers.
“And now the burden falls on them to do all this and this is hard on them,” she said of the post office down the road. “I don’t know how they are coping, to be honest, because it was such a popular service with us.”