You should CALL or better yet, stop by at your local passport office. In Florida we have been able to get an emergency expedited passport in less than 48 hours and that in the period when the new law came into effect and passport offices were swamped with request and had no passports. Your results may vary from State to State though.
I must ad that I was amazed to find out that all the way thru and after 2001 (9-11) Americans could indeed travel (back into the States) presenting only a non-identifying ID like a birth certificate. I did not know that until the new law canceling that possiblity came out. A birth certificate is NOTHING. I ordered multiple copies over the
phone in yes, early 2001 for my kids! You would not want to guess how many non-nationals have entered the States on this scheme... incredible. So for anyone to hope that somehow, because of xyz special circumstance there may still be a possiblility... well, if there was, and I am sorry for the OP but I hope there isn't, it would raise questions of National security so big one could aswell have a special expedited service booth for all indocumented and those who have carry-on nukes
at every port of entry, so they'd can get in on the fast lane... HOV lane for terrorists?
In the country I came from initially, having a passport is something you do even if you don't plan to travel... ever. Sure, the US is a large country and offers enough land to visit, but yet, a passport is the ultimate ID and a key to the freedom of moving quite freely throughout the world, especially if one has been so priviledged to have been born in a country from which one is welcomed to enter almost any country without much hassle.
Short, get yer passport before you need one.
... J-D.