This is a story with struck home for me - the great, absurd U.S. passport backlog of 2007. My passport was up for renewal in June. I'm planning a trip to Europe later this summer. I applied for my new passport in April, and only then learned how really backlogged they were.

I waited. I heard the stories of ruined trips, of people who got their passports the day before they were to depart, of governmental meltdown. I waited some more. I passed the 10-12 weeks they had said when I applied. I passed the 12-14 weeks they were giving as an updated timeframe.

I was just getting ready to find out how deft our congressional delegation's constituent services were when mine arrived in the mail the other day. Almost 15 weeks after applying.

Rep. Peter Welch reports that the House voted Monday afternoon on a bill that's supposed to alleviate passport-renewal anxiety by beefing up the number of experienced people processing them.

The legislation gives the State Department the ability to rehire retired Foreign Service employees to staff passport processing centers, Welch said. The Senate passed the bill in June. Now it's up to the president to sign it.

In case your bags are packed, you're ready to go and you're still waiting for your passport, I am told that our congressional delegation might be able to intercede on your behalf. Welch said his office has helped dozens. I ran into local immigration lawyer Susan Sussman a few weeks back who gave me hope that if the time came, she knew some people who could make things happen. But my real advice is if you're going to be needing a new passport within the next two years, it's not too early to apply.

Who knew that when the federal government started saying people were going to need a passport to cross the street that there'd be a rush of applications? Apparently no one who was involved in making decisions about staffing and processing. But I gotta tell you, I feel a lot better about it now that I have my new passport.

- Terri Hallenbeck