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2005 a banner year for passports
By Kitty Bean Yancey, USA TODAY

Last year was another record year at U.S. passport offices.
About 10.1 million of the blue booklets were issued in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the State Department says. That's up from 8.8 million in fiscal 2004.

One reason for the surge: a looming Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act requirement that U.S. travelers to the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, the Bahamas and Panama show a passport to re-enter the USA by Jan. 1, 2008.

The State Department first planned to put the rule into effect in the Caribbean this year but then changed the plan amid complaints that the new policy could deter U.S. tourism to the region.

Now, passports won't be required for air and sea travel involving those areas until January 2007. A year later, the rule is due to expand to land border crossings.

"We suspect it's prompting a lot of people to get (a passport)," says Laura Tischler, a State Department spokeswoman.

She estimates that a quarter of U.S. citizens have a passport, up from 18%-20% a decade ago.

New passports, which now cost $97 for adult first-timers and $67 for renewals, contain digitized photos to deter fraudulent use of stolen documents.

The next generation, which is being tested on diplomats and other officials, will have electronic chips encoded with information on the document, such as sex, date of birth, place of birth, passport number and expiration date.

Passport ? Who needs a passport?
When I go to CR, I just show them my CRT Membership Card. If they need another form of I.D., I whip out my library card, and they let me in!!!

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!