State-Federal Showdown Over Real ID License Averted … For Now

The clash between the states and the federal government over nationwide rules to make driver’s licenses more secure has ended — for now. A truce, of sorts, between the 50 states and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has kicked the issue down the road for the next president and Congress to hash out almost two years from now.

Maine became the last state to receive an extension to comply with the Real ID Act. Without that extension, residents of Maine, South Carolina and the other states that flirted with the March 31 deadline could not have used their licenses to board airplanes and enter federal buildings after May 11.

DHS now says all states are in compliance with Real ID, but opposition to the act remains strong. Bills in 11 states this year would bar participation in Real ID.

With the immediate crisis averted, the next showdown could come at the end of the extension, in January 2010, when there will be a new Congress, a different president and very likely another secretary of homeland security.

States have consistently railed against Real ID as a federal intrusion into their domain, a huge unfunded mandate and a threat to personal privacy. The measure passed the Republican-controlled Congress in 2005 with no hearings and little opposition.

Under the act, states will have to verify the identity of all 245 million drivers and reissue new, more tamper-proof licenses. The law also requires states to digitally store and share the information with other states.

But proposed rules, released in 2007, came with an estimated $14.6 billion cost for states, and six states passed laws that year refusing to comply. A dozen more states have called for costs to be fully covered by Congress.

Final regulations, released by DHS in January 2008, gave states nearly five extra years to fulfill the law’s requirements and lowered the cost to an estimated $3.9 billion. All but a handful of states asked for and received the extension, but Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina held out until late in March. They all have received extensions by sending letters outlining the steps their states had taken to make licensing more secure

“The federal government should be interested in results, not words, and your letter offers results that will greatly improve South Carolina’s driver’s license security,” explained homeland security Secretary Michael Chertoff in his letter granting an extension to The Palmetto State.

Topics Maine South Carolina