Washington ? Congress is moving to postpone until June 2009 requiring passports for land and sea travel to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean after complaints about vacation-ruining delays by the State Department in issuing them.

The House passed the 17-month delay Friday after a key Senate committee approved it a day earlier.

The State Department has been flooded with applications since new rules went into effect in January requiring passports for air travelers returning from the same destinations. The resulting backlog has caused delays of up to three months for passports and ruined or delayed the travel plans of thousands of people.

In response, the government last week temporarily waived a passport requirement for air travel, provided people can demonstrate they’ve applied.

The Homeland Security Department is still pressing ahead to require passports of everyone crossing into the U.S. from Canada or Mexico beginning in January 2008 – a rule that some experts believe will lead to a fourfold increase in demand for new passports.

The House voted 379-45 Friday to include the delay as part of a $37.4 billion homeland security spending bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved the same provision as part of its version of the bill.

“Nobody can say with a straight face that the federal government is ready for this,” said Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio. “My amendment simply asks the DHS to slow down and get it right this time.”

The application surge is the result of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that since January has required U.S. citizens to use passports when entering the United States from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean by air. It is part of a broader package of immigration rules enacted after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.