Passport taking forever? These lawmakers want President Biden to do something about it

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

ESHOO, BERA URGE BIDEN TO TAKE ACTION ON PASSPORT DELAYS

Having trouble getting your passport? You’re not alone.

Americans can expect to wait up to 13 weeks for routine passport processing. Prior to the pandemic, the wait was up to eight weeks.

Now, two California congress members, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, and Rep. Ami Bera, D-Sacramento, have written a letter to President Joe Biden, calling on him to get the U.S. State Department to do something about the delays.

“Since March of this year, caseworkers in each of our congressional offices have been bombarded by requests from constituents to help them with their passport applications and renewal requests,” the lawmakers wrote, adding that many of their constituents have been forced to cancel international travel plans because they couldn’t get their passport in time.

“This has prevented our constituents from attending weddings and funerals, spending precious time with family, studying and working abroad, and enjoying much-anticipated summer travel,” they wrote.

The two congress members added that while this is a national problem, it’s one keenly felt in the Golden State, which has the largest foreign-born population in the country.

“Despite being the most populous state, California has only three passport agencies to assist its nearly 40 million residents. For comparison, there are six passport agencies in the Northeast Corridor alone,” they wrote.

Eshoo and Bera called on the State Department to set up temporary passport offices to increase in-person appointment capacity and increase staffing at the San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego locations.

ANOTHER SCHOOL DISTRICT CONSIDERS ‘OUTING’ POLICY

Yet another SoCal school district board is considering adopting a policy of outing transgender students to their parents.

This time, it’s Orange Unified School District.

The board opted not to make a final decision during their Thursday night meeting, but deferred the matter to a future meeting, but not before taking emotional testimony from parents, teachers and activists on the subject, according to CBS Los Angeles.

If Orange Unified does adopt such a policy, it will be following similar decisions of school boards in Chino and Murrieta. It also would follow the North Carolina Legislature, which last week overrode a veto to enact a mandatory statewide parental notification policy.

After the school board in Chino was first to adopt the policy, California Attorney General Rob Bonta launched a civil rights investigation.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Be careful out here. I’ve had multiple meeting cancellations due to COVID — and it’s only the first few days back in session!”

- California lobbyist Sadalia King, via the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Best of The Bee:

• Yes, President Joe Biden will still be coming to Lake Tahoe, with his visit scheduled around a trip to see wildfire devastation on Maui, via Gillian Brassil and Michael Wilner.

• Amid Thursday’s scorching heat, California lawmakers campaigned for a suite of bills they hope will tackle one of the state’s largest but overlooked sources of carbon pollution causing global warming: buildings, via Ari Plachta.

• Blue Shield of California is shifting the way it manages its pharmacy supply chain for its ratepayers, a move they say could save $500 million annually in drug costs, lessening the burden on customers, via Grace Scullion.

• More than two years after a Sacramento-area businesswoman was falsely accused of posting racist and hateful comments on the Facebook page for Sacramento’s Black Lives Matter chapter, her lawsuit against BLM Sacramento has been settled with the group’s founder issuing a public apology, via Sam Stanton.