Henry Champ is CBC Newsworld's correspondent in Washington, D.C., delivering Canadian viewers the latest developments in the U.S. political arena. Recently, he has been a leading Canadian voice on coverage of the war on terrorism, the war in Iraq and the growing concerns over the Canada-U.S. relationship.

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Sausage and passports
2:59 p.m. EDT

It's been said that if you watched sausage being made, you wouldn't eat sausage.

You'd feel the same way about politics if you watched how laws and policy were being made on Capitol Hill.

The biggest issue facing Canada and the United States at the moment is the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which is the law that Congress passed requiring all persons entering the United States — Americans, Canadians, everyone — to have a passport.

It was passed, without much thought it now appears, as a measure to better protect the U.S. from terrorist attack.

Just this past week, two men who should know, former American ambassadors James Blanchard and Paul Cellucci, attacked the WHTI, saying it was a disaster.

Celluci, who was appointed to Ottawa by President George W. Bush, said the entire program is ill-conceived and would do nothing to improve security. Blanchard, a Clinton appointee, warned that "if it is not managed right, it could be a total train wreck in our relationship," adding, "a lot of people in Washington don't understand the degree of social integration between our two countries."

Well, more Washington politicians are learning about the problem and they are trying to make better sausage.

Career-threatening announcement

Yesterday, two key senators, Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), successfully attached an amendment to two appropriations bills. The amendment calls for a 17-month delay for WHTI until mid-2009. The delay would allow the U.S. government time to produce a new wallet-sized border card for those who can't afford passports, and also give Canada time to adopt the same card if applicable.

A delay for the passport bill implementation now seems inevitable. More and more congressmen are aware of the commercial risks to their states and the entire country. Within the administration, there are key voices telling journalists a delay is coming — it's just a question of who will make the announcement that the plan was botched.

Announcements of botches are not easily arranged. They can be career-threatening.

Unfortunately one promising sausage-maker tried and failed. Freshman member Ted Poe (R-Texas) offered a bill that would simply lower the price of passports.

It seems to many people the ultimate solution. Charge 10 bucks for a passport. The government can find other ways to make up the loss.

It was voted down.

So here we are. This column promises to update each step as Washington struggles to get it right.

You're in good hands.

We've watched a lot of sausage being made on Capitol Hill.