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The great passport gouge

by Kaitlin | November 2, 2007 at 10:53 am

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In a year when U.S. and Canadian citizens were more or less forced to acquire passports en masse, there was very little comfort to be offered for the time and money travelers spent papering up. Hours of lines, fees upon fees upon fees... it was a weary year for travelers. But for the U.S. government, the passport rush had its benefits:

Over the past year, as the government issued nearly 14 million new passports, it collected at least $111.4 million more in passport fees than its stated costs, according to calculations by The Associated Press based on figures from State Department and congressional investigators.

It turns out that a significant portion of the passport fee for American adults--$30 out of the $97 total (or more, depending)--was set aside for administrative costs that, well, didn't cost $30 per passport.

The $30 is intended to cover the cost of clerks examining and accepting passport applications at post offices, State Department passport offices, courthouses, libraries, municipal offices and universities.

The investigators' findings? The government's $30 fee was roughly double the actual cost when imposed in 2002. The Postal Service, which operates 5,382 locations where people can apply for passports, estimated its costs at $13.31 in 2002. The State Department, which operates 14 passport offices, said its costs were $16.20 at that time.

Currently Congress is investigating this possible overpayment; in the meantime passport holders have to be satisfied by the fact that if they're angry with their country about the money they shelled out, they can always hop on a plane...

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Barry Artiste

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 16:12 on November 2nd, 2007

Kaitlin, Good stuff. You know I wonder what Canadians were gouged by the Canadian Government over our passports? That would also be news we could use as well.

Thanks for bringing this, its nice to know the US as well as Canada taxpayers are getting shafted.