(ATLANTA, Ga.) — A Georgia Congresswoman is leading a bipartisan effort to get the State Department to push through a tremendous backlog of passport applications.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently testified that his department is getting around 500,000 new passport applications every week.

That, he said, was an increase of between 35%-40% over last year.

Experts point to the fact that many Americans let their passports expire during the pandemic. Now, many want to travel abroad again and need to renew their expired passports. That is helping cause the backlog.

In a letter signed by nearly 200 Democratic and Republican members of Congress, Rep. Nikema Williams (D) Georgia penned a letter to Blinken complaining that the Congressional Offices of Constituent Services is drowning in requests for help with passports.

It’s such a bipartisan concern that Williams got her letter co-signed by such Republicans as Lauren Boebert and Democrats as Hank Johnson.

“Congressional Offices are repeatedly experiencing instances where our constituents report that the State’s Passport Offices gave…expectations of our…ability to assist them that conflicted with the guidance State has provided to our offices,” Williams wrote.

Williams is urging the State Department to push through that backlog of applications and make sure its new Online Passport Renewal system is up and running well.

Laura Kasibante is a mother of four looking to move back to Uganda in July. She came to the Brookhaven Passport Office all the way from Acworth because she was having trouble making appointments to renew their passports.

She paid extra to have those passports expedited, but still, she said they were warned it could take seven to nine weeks to get them.

“It’s a little bit stressful, but I’m hopeful,” Kasibante told WSB-TV′s Richard Elliott. “We’re really hoping because we’re traveling in July, so I’m hoping for the best that it comes in time.”

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