Comrade, the Government will tell you what is and what is not a security risk.
For all the concern about border entry and whatnot by DHS, State outsources this to Thailand. Next thing you know, DHS will say that passports are not as good as RealID.
Oh, and one of the stories I heard was that one agency (GPO?) had overcharged State for the passports to an effective profit of tens of millions of dollars. Guess who paid that extra money...