Alternative Documents
It is incumbent on DHS and CBP to ensure that we offer document options that best meet the needs of the traveling public. In addition to a U.S. passport, U.S. citizens will be able to present a passport card, a state-issued, DHS-approved enhanced driver’s license, a trusted traveler program card, a merchant mariner document, a U.S. military ID with travel orders, or a WHTI-compliant enhanced tribal card. It is also a clear responsibility of the U.S. government to ensure that we can produce these documents in a timely manner. DHS and DOS are continually monitoring our resources, infrastructure, and ability to do so, and have put in place practices and plans to manage the expected increase of applications for all our travel document programs.

Let me illustrate our progress toward ensuring that we can provide sufficient WHTI-compliant documents for United States citizens by June 1, 2009. Currently, many cross border travelers already have WHTI-compliant documents such as passports, trusted traveler cards, or enhanced driver’s licenses (EDL). Over 88 million U.S. citizens have passports. Our partners at DOS started taking applications for the new passport card in February 2008 and have received over 143,000 applications for the passport card that will begin to be issued in June. States and Canadian provinces will be issuing EDLs in the next several months – additional options for United States and Canadian citizens.
---
DHS has entered into memoranda of agreement with the states of Washington, Vermont, Arizona, and New York to develop and produce WHTI-compliant EDLs, which will be acceptable travel documents at all land and sea ports of entry. Traveler demand for the enhanced driver’s license has exceeded expectations in Washington State. As of April 10, 2008, Washington State has scheduled more than 21,000 appointments and has issued more than 8,500 EDLs. The states of New York, Arizona, and Vermont remain on track to issue EDLs in 2008. The Canadian province of British Columbia began issuing EDLs to Canadian citizens this month, and we expect Ontario and Quebec to follow by the end of the year. We continue to work with other states, including Michigan, which has recently passed legislation supporting the development of an EDL. We believe that with the success of EDLs other states may also wish to produce the documents for the convenience and benefits they offer to their resident citizens.

We have sent out over 600 letters to all the federally recognized Native American tribes and offered to work with them toward developing a WHTI-compliant enhanced tribal document. This partnership is critical to the success of WHTI and demonstrates our commitment to listening to the concerns and ideas expressed by the Native American community.