The State Department reports today that the passport backlog is gone and processing time is back to the normal six to eight weeks, or three weeks for expedited (i.e. pay more money) service. It had been up to 15 weeks, and paying for expedited service didn't help.

This comes just as Sen. Patrick Leahy's office announced that the Senate passed a State Department budget bill Thursday that included the money for the State Department to hire more passport-processing workers. That was $40 million transferred from elsewhere in the department. What backlogs will develop from that $40 million being averted from other duties we won't likely find out for months. And will the State Department be able to keep up with what surely will be a heavier demand for passports from here on?

OK, so now everybody who can afford one, can get a passport within a reasonable time span. Next crisis to be resolved: What about those people who live on the border and for whom it is not practical and arguable not necessary to show a passport every time they back out of their driveway? And what about those backlogs of cars at the border crossings?

- Terri Hallenbeck