A bill to amend the Passport Act of June 4, 1920, to authorize certain public libraries to collect and retain a fee for the execution of a passport application.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would change federal law to allow certain public libraries to serve as official passport application processing sites and charge a small fee for that service. Currently, people who want to apply for a U.S. passport can go to designated acceptance facilities — such as post offices or government offices — where staff help verify and submit their application. This bill would expand that network to include eligible public libraries, giving them the legal authority to collect and keep an "execution fee" (a small service charge, currently $35) for processing passport applications.

The people most directly affected would be library visitors seeking passports and public libraries themselves. For applicants, this could make the passport process more convenient, especially in communities where post offices or other acceptance facilities are limited or hard to reach. For libraries, it would create a new source of revenue that they could use to support their operations and services.

At this point, the bill has been introduced in the Senate and sent to the Committee on Foreign Relations for review, meaning it has not yet been passed into law. If enacted, it would not require anyone to use a library for their passport application — it would simply add libraries as an additional option alongside existing processing locations.