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Efficient Government
Back in September 2020-January 2021, I had two posts on Why the Mails are Slow (both are accessed from this one link). https://ricochet.com/881927/the-mails-are-still-slow/
This is the sort of government inefficiency that Mssrs. Musk and Ramaswamy should have in their sights.
It now pleases me to report an example of extraordinary government efficiency in, of all places, the Department of State. That is the Passport Office.
Preparing for a trip to Amsterdam in May 2025, I noted that my passport expires in April (thank you, Rick Steve, for suggesting checking passports before even buying airfare!). So, hoping to avoid a trip to the USPS, I searched “renew passport online” and was rewarded with a link to such a service! While practicing telemedicine on Thursday, November 7, I had a 20-minute break between patients. I went to the link and gathered the necessary documents, viz.: my expiring passport, my Visa card and a recent passport-quality photo. The website estimated I would require 40 minutes to fill out the application. I decided to give it a try in half that.
I was fortunate to have a passport-style headshot from a recent job application, so I pasted it in the box on the application. It was auto-rejected for being too close up, but I found the uncropped image, which was accepted. I completed the application, which was easy-peasy to do, and emailed it off into the ether in time to see my next patient.
Later that day I received an email saying that my application had been received and would be reviewed when my CC charge cleared. On Tuesday, November 12, I received an email telling me that my application was being reviewed. On Friday, November 15, I received an email telling me that my application was approved, my new passport printed, and that it would arrive by priority mail on or about Wednesday, November 20.
It arrived on Saturday, November 16.
The moral of my story is that governmental functions are not necessarily slow and inefficient. Whatever process was applied to expedite passport processing, which, in this case, was efficient, courteous, communicative and brisk. This could be applied to thousands of other governmental functions.
In your dreams…
Published in General
Just checked. Still have a couple of years to go. Not planning on going anywhere anyway.
I renewed last year. It was easy and ahead of schedule. I didn’t even expedite.
One could only hope.
Great to know. My passport expires in August.
Depending on where you go, a passport valid at the time of arrival may not be enough. Even if a visa isn’t necessary, the country you’re entering may require at least 6 months’ validity. I had vague plans to visit Peru and Bolivia, but if I firm those up, it better be before February.
And how much is willful? Permits for Class 3 firearms (suppressors, full auto, short barrel) approval times slowly climbed to a year or more and then suddenly dropped to a matter of a few days. That can’t be just some refinement of a system to improve efficiency.
It seems that most systems are still run/managed/maintained by red blooded humans with their own ideas. Human systems also have dynamics and influence how the mechanical or electronic systems execute. Everyone who has worked in an organization of any size knows there is the prescribed set of protocols and the actual way things work, protocols be damned. PA voters are still hearing about They Who Count the Votes. The USPS is an easy target because its (excruciatingly expensive) flaws and weaknesses are well known. Who doesn’t have a local PO it’s best to avoid because its staff are miserable sullen unhelpful indifferent people and you never know what will happen to something that goes in the box there. Vineyard Haven, MA I’m talking about you.
In my world any person processed through an ATF check or buys a hunting/fishing license is automatically registered to vote. I call it the Toter Voter Law and I occasionally ask my Congressman to enact.
There have been a number of reports that the shortened turn around time is due to automation when e-forms are used. ATF processing for non-standard applications (e.g. trusts, paper applications) are still slow.
More info.
Considering the administration of the last 4 years, any service improvements to gun owners by ATF are surprising.
The automated systems can help a lot, but there’s more to consider. What is sometimes called “the last mile” in freight shipping etc, is critical.
While previously living in Phoenix, I once encountered a batch of mail left in a trash bin by a postal worker who apparently didn’t want to bother putting them in the intended mailboxes. Which were all in a “cluster unit” so it’s not like it required walking or driving to multiple homes, etc.
Then while retrieving the mail pieces from the trash bin, I noticed one piece that seemed like a passport.
The other items were turned over to a postal supervisor for investigation etc. But the passport I took to the address it was meant for, where the people were very happy because it was needed for impending travel.
My most efficient government services experience lately has been with my state’s corporations division at the Secretary of State. Now, when I first began practicing law, to form a corporation one had to create and have signed two originals of the Articles of Incorporation and two signed originals of the intended registered agent’s Consent to Serve. These went by snail mail to the state capitol along with the check for the incorporation. Perhaps within two to three weeks later, one stamped original of each was returned by mail (unless there was a problem such as a name too close to an existing one, whereupon one started all over again).
Now, it is all online. First one can check to see if the name is available. If so, complete the online application, indicate you have written OK for the registered agent to serve, and use a credit card to remit the incorporation fee.
Voila: within a business day, an email arrives that the application has been approved, and here is the Certificate of Incorporation. One can even supply the initial annual report, thus postponing any more interaction for a year (other than getting actual business licenses, which is a different agency but still all online and much, much faster than years ago.)
Even the IRS has made obtaining a tax ID number for the new entity free, easy, and fast, online. The IRS! Cats and dogs living together! Real Biblical stuff!
There can be advantages, sure, but what if – for example – the supposed “consent to serve” by the registered agent, is fraudulent? Do they even try to verify that by other means, even if it’s initially allowed to save time?
It’s not difficult to find examples, including on YouTube, of people who had their homes essentially stolen because someone could just “file paperwork” perhaps online, for a fraudulent title change, or someone taking out an unauthorized mortgage, etc. The registrars/clerks often just accept anything handed to them, stamp it, and file it. And once done, it’s the true homeowner who has to pay and wait to get it fixed; the functionaries who facilitated the problem, appear to have no responsibility for causing/allowing it, nor obligation to correct it themselves.
Well, criminals are gonna criminal. Nothing different from forged signatures in the old days to phony filings in the digital age. I still prefer efficiency every day.
Maybe that’s not really “efficiency” but just “speed.” Actual “efficiency” should include getting it right. Otherwise you’re in Dennis Miller land: “When I worked for a moving company, I could pack a 60-piece set of dinnerware in 15 minutes. I could pack it in 5 minutes if you wanted a 180-piece set.”
Let’s not get efficient at doing that which should not be done. This is perhaps not a great example, but why do passports expire at all? Why does the US make it easier for foreign governments to track its own citizens?
Photos get old.
I don’t follow you about the tracking.
Oh if only the sort of top people who are in charge of your state’s Secretary of State incorporation division had a hand with the Calif Franchise Tax Board.
First of all, the every name throws people off. Since when I first moved here, I noticed there was no “Tax Authority” that I could see, so I thought Calif was an income tax free state. (As a w-2 worker, the employer took it out when I made too much so I should have looked at my withholdings but didn’t.)
Now as a business person with my own business, I have to attempt to deal with this entity. There is no way to deal with them. They send a notice that you owe such and such based on the accountant’s paperwork sent to them. The figure is vastly higher than anything someone of my income bracket could owe.
A letter gets sent and is ignored. Calls are made repeatedly and ignored. We are not talking about days or weeks but over a period of months.
Finally as the date for handing over the balance of monies owed, as stated by them, is approaching, someone there answers the phone. You are told you now have 72 hours to give them the funds in full or your business will be shut down by the end of the month. You are forced to comply as you have seen friends facing such measures and the state of Calif will shut down one’s business in a very efficient manner.
One of the big problems is that they do not feel they have to be available by phone. One of my friends is a corporate accountant. His firm has a dedicated phone line that sits and does nothing but ring the Department of the Franchise Tax Board on a continual basis. In some cases one problem will be handled by that dedicated phone line ringing through for a full two weeks until the phone is answered!
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Well, it was too good to last. On Tuesday November 19 I received this email from the passport office:
We sent your supporting documents via First Class Mail on 11/19/2024 to the mailing address you provided on your application.
Supporting documents may include a previous passport, birth certificate, naturalization certificate, or other citizenship and identity documents.
New passports and supporting documents are sent in separate mailings at different times. If you have not received your passport after two weeks or your supporting documents after four weeks, contact the National Passport Information Center at 1-877-487-2778. If you are deaf or hard of hearing, call 1-888-874-7793.
Your application locator number is 960xxxxxx
The joke, of course, is that there were no supporting documents so nothing was sent back to me by first class. I’ll be interested to see if an empty envelope turns up!