Central Pa. library system will soon no longer be able to serve as passport agencies

• By Jade Campos / LNP | LancasterOnline

Lancaster County could lose five passport agencies before the end of the year after federal officials told local libraries they could no longer process passport applications.

Karla Trout, executive director of the Lancaster County Library System, last week said libraries that serve as passport agencies received an email from the U.S. Department of State on Nov. 18 informing them of the change.

Many libraries in Pennsylvania are independent nonprofits, not official arms of a local government. Even though libraries that function as passport agencies have done so for upward of 20 years without an issue, the federal government says they are no longer eligible, Trout said.

The affected libraries are Adamstown Area Library, Elizabethtown Public Library, Ephrata Public Library, Lancaster Public Library, Milanof-Schock Library and Quarryville Library Center.

Manheim Township Public Library also processes passport applications, and it is expected to continue doing so because the library is a branch of the township government.

All libraries, regardless of nonprofit status, are still eligible to take passport photos.

Now, library directors in Lancaster County say they’re scrambling to get people signed up for passport appointments by the first week of December, when they are required to respond to the Department of State.

“Even though this is a federal issue, it is going to impact Pennsylvanians because all of a sudden there will be… less locations where you can get your passport in Lancaster County,” Trout said.

Milanof-Schock Director Joseph McIlhenney said the Department of State email included just one question: Are you a nonprofit agency? Most local directors say they haven’t responded to the email yet but assume their processing abilities will be revoked when they do or by the end of the two weeks.

“We don’t know what happens next and how fast it will happen,” McIlhenney said.

In a statement Monday, a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of State said the agency has developed a new review process for organizations that are interested in serving as application agencies. Nonprofits are not legally permitted to serve as passport agencies, the spokesperson said, and are being removed to “ensure the integrity of the acceptance network.”

“Nationwide, 99 percent of the U.S. population lives within 20 miles of an acceptance facility,” the statement said. “Should the removal of an ineligible facility affect passport services, we will work to identify new eligible program partners in the impacted area.”

Resident impact

Elizabethtown Library Director Deborah Drury said she’s worried about what the impact this change will have on residents and other passport agencies. Elizabethtown Post Office does not process passport applications, she said, guessing the closest agencies are Mount Joy’s Post Office, around 7 miles away, or Hershey’s Post Office, around 12 miles away.

Many post offices, Drury said, often do not have evening or weekend hours to process passport applications, which libraries typically offer.

“The post office in different towns, they’re not going to be prepared for the need,” Drury said.

Drury said she is pursuing a legal opinion that could ensure libraries can continue to process passport applications. In the meantime, Trout said many directors have approached U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick as well as Gov. Josh Shapiro to ask for help.

Trout said many residents in Lebanon County, where she lives, travel to the Elizabethtown library to get a passport and now will need to find a new location to go. Quarryville Library Director Michele Lefler noted their staff also sees people who are traveling from other counties and even Maryland and New Jersey to apply for a passport.

Lancaster Public Library Director Lissa Holland said the library’s staff has processed applications on a daily basis since the county courthouse stopped providing the service.

“The Shapiro Administration is concerned about any federal action that threatens our libraries and Governor Shapiro will continue his work to secure more resources for Pennsylvania libraries, like he did by delivering an increase of $5 million in state funding for public libraries,” said Rosie Lapowsky, a spokesperson for Shapiro.

A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker said his office would contact the Department of State to understand why the change was made.

“Residents of Lancaster County will continue to have access to passport processing at numerous post offices across the community, including access to weekend appointments,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Requests for comment to Fetterman and McCormick were not returned as of Tuesday.

‘It will hurt’

Libraries will also take a major financial hit if they are no longer able to process passport applications. Trout said a portion of the $15 application fee goes back to the libraries, and many have come to rely on those dollars.

Lefler said Quarryville Library typically brings in $50,000 annually from passport fees, which makes up around 13% of its budget. The potential loss of that revenue comes after several years of municipal funding cuts to the library, which lost more than $16,000 in local government support this year.

“After years of dwindling municipal support, that’s just another nail in our coffin so to speak,” Lefler said. “I’m not saying that we’re about to close our doors, but it will hurt.”

Lancaster Public Library expects to lose $64,000 without revenue from processing passport applications. For Milanof-Schock in Mount Joy, the loss could be as high as $100,000.

“How am I going to maintain library services with a 20% hit?” McIlhenney said.

Some libraries had already adopted 2026 budgets and will now have to go back to the drawing board to factor in the lost revenue, potentially leading to reduced library hours or staffing cuts.

Adamstown Library Director Corinne Brumbach said she’s in a tricky situation because library usage continues to go up year after year, so the services the library provides should be growing. That’s not possible if the library loses passport revenue, which amounted to $34,000 in 2024.

McIlhenney said Milanof-Schock staff have wanted to expand its children’s library after the retirement of longtime children and youth director Jan Betty, aka “Miss Jan,” this year. Now, that expansion probably won’t happen.

“Our programs are an important part of what we do. Lots of people come to our programs,” McIlhenney said. “We want to expand, we’ve talked a lot about this. Now, the budget I’m willing to put in front of the board is not balanced.”

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