WHY WAS THIS FUNDED?

The U.S. Department of State is legally required to issue passports to eligible American citizens, and running these high-volume processing centers requires significant staffing and administrative support. The government uses outside contractors to handle operational tasks at these facilities.

WHAT PUBLIC PROBLEM IS IT TRYING TO SOLVE?

Millions of Americans need passports every year to travel internationally, and the government must have enough staffing and processing capacity to handle those applications in a timely way. Without adequate support at passport agencies and centers, wait times can grow very long and Americans may be unable to travel as planned.

WHO BENEFITS?

American citizens who apply for or renew passports benefit directly through faster and more reliable service at locations nationwide. Workers employed by CGI Federal who are placed at these passport facilities also benefit through jobs created by the contract.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS?

Because the contract type is listed as unknown, it is unclear whether costs are fixed or could grow over time, which raises questions about cost control. There is also a general risk with large service contracts that quality of work and productivity are difficult to monitor when a private company manages government customer service operations.

WHAT HAPPENS IF FUNDING IS REMOVED?

If this contract were cancelled, the Department of State would likely lose a large portion of the staff running its passport processing centers and agencies, causing serious slowdowns or shutdowns in passport services. Millions of Americans could face major delays or be unable to get passports needed for travel, work, or emergencies.

ARGUMENTS FOR

• •Passport processing requires high staffing levels that can be difficult to maintain using only full-time government employees, so outsourcing helps the government scale operations to meet demand.
• •Centralizing management under one experienced contractor across 27 locations can create consistent service standards and reduce the burden on the Department of State to manage those operations directly.
• •Timely passport processing supports American citizens' ability to travel internationally for business, family, and humanitarian reasons, making this a broadly useful public service.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST

• •At nearly $400 million over roughly two years, this is a very large contract, and the unknown contract type makes it hard for the public to know whether taxpayer dollars are being spent efficiently.
• •Outsourcing government passport operations to a private company means less direct public accountability over the quality and fairness of service provided to citizens.
• •Relying heavily on a single contractor for such a critical national service creates a dependency risk, where problems with that one company could disrupt passport services for millions of Americans at once.