Johnson said residents of all states may continue to use a state-issued driver’s license or identification card (and a variety of alternate forms of identification) for domestic air travel until January 22, 2018.
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Your driver’s license will suffice to get through airport security for another couple of years, even though IL doesn’t meet federal guidelines under the REAL ID Act.
Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, Washington state and American Samoa have made little progress to comply with Real ID, federal officials say.
While 23 states are fully compliant with the REAL ID Act, 27 states and territories have been granted extensions for a period of time to become compliant. Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders had been trying to broker an agreement Friday morning on a special legislative session, in part to deal with the Real ID issue.
The REAL ID Act, approved by Congress more than a decade ago, set minimum standards for licenses following September 11, 2001.
Haupt says the feds want a passport or birth certificate when you renew a license; something IL doesn’t require.
Homeland Security has since announced that Missourians will be able to board planes using state-issued IDs until 2018. But Johnson said the new timetable and the extensions that have been issued should give those states time to change those laws. In the last month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that Missourians could be barred in the future from entering federal facilities or traveling by air without providing another form of identification.
While he worries that making some Americans’ drivers’ licenses not acceptable for air travel could “have a chilling effect on our economy”, he’s confident non-compliant states and the federal government will work out their differences. Some would have until October 1, 2020.
If South Carolina were to comply, he said, its driver’s license data would be open to other states and “the security of every state’s motor vehicle database is only as strong as the weakest of every other state”, he said. They thought the new requirements would begin later this year, but federal officials Friday said that was a misunderstanding and that never was the plan.
Many privacy advocates are also critical that the USA government is unilaterally setting standards in an area traditionally handled by the states.
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To meet Real ID requirements a state identification card or driver’s license must contain improved technology over regular IDs and the state must collect more information from the applicant.
