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WASHINGTON — The Bush administration may suspend a major post-9/11 security initiative to cope with increasingly angry complaints from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by backups in processing passports.

A proposal under consideration would temporarily waive a requirement that U.S. passports be used for air travel to and from Canada and Mexico, provided that the traveler can prove he or she has applied for a passport, officials said today.

The officials at the agencies involved spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is still the subject of internal debate, and details are not finalized. But three of the four said an announcement could come as early as Friday.

The proposed six-month suspension in the rules is aimed at clearing a backlog of passport applications at the State Department that has slowed processing to a crawl, they said. Instead of a passport, travelers could present a State Department receipt showing that their application was being proposed.

But the plan has run into opposition from the Homeland Security Department, which controls U.S. border points and fears the move could make it easier for terrorists or other undesirables to enter the country, the officials said.

It is being reviewed by Homeland Security, the White House and members of Congress, who have been deluged with complaints from constituents, according to the four officials.

"This is pre-decisional, and I have no comment," DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said.

One official familiar with the discussions said if the plan goes ahead, those without passports would receive additional security scrutiny when they travel, which could include extra questioning or bag checks.

The suspension would give the State Department time to deal with a surge in applications that has overwhelmed its processing centers since the new rules took effect earlier this year.

The backlog has caused up to three-month delays in issuing passports and ruined or delayed the travel plans of untold thousands of Americans.

Frustrated lawmakers besieged with constituent complaints have demanded relief.

Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-N.Y.), whose district lies near the Canadian border, said White House officials have been on Capitol Hill trying to work out a compromise amid what he called a "turf war" between State and Homeland Security.

"White House personnel have seen the problem, and they've been on Capitol Hill working with members," Reynolds said. "I expect a plan to be forthcoming that ... would not require a passport as long as you had an application receipt for filing for the passport."

The State Department has hired hundreds of new passport adjudicators, put employees to work around-the-clock and opened a new processing facility in Arkansas but has still been unable to meet the demand.

Initial hopes that the delays could be overcome were dashed earlier this month when more than a million requests for new passports were dumped at once on the facilities by banks contracted to clear application-fee checks, a senior State Department official said.

The passport 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.

Caribbean destinations are not included in the proposed suspension, the officials said.