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Sunday, February 02, 2025

TSA Punts REAL ID Enforcement To 2027

TSA Punts REAL ID Enforcement To 2027

Only 70% of state-issued identifications would be REAL ID-compliant by the May 2025 deadline, raising the prospect of delays at airport security checkpoints.

Updated Sep 23, 2024, 01:13pm EDT

Nineteen years after Congress enacted the REAL ID Act of 2005, America is still not ready to enforce the law.

As of January 2024, only 56% of all state-issued IDs were REAL ID-compliant. More important, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expects to only reach 70% compliance by May 7, 2025, the deadline by which air travelers would need a REAL ID-compliant identification to board a flight in the United States.

Consequently, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) proposed a rule earlier this month that would keep the May 7, 2025 deadline but hold off full enforcement until May 5, 2027—giving states and travelers another two years to get their ducks in a row.

This would be the fourth time since the COVID-19 pandemic that the U.S. has delayed the REAL ID deadline. The last time, in 2022, the deadline was pushed back to May 7, 2025.

Technically that deadline is staying put, the agency insists. “TSA is engaging with the public, licensing jurisdictions and states to facilitate a smooth transition to REAL ID enforcement beginning May 7, 2025,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske in a statement. “REAL ID provides an important security enhancement, and this rule allows us to plan for a range of scenarios to help minimize the potential impact to travelers, industry stakeholders and states during implementation.”

What This Means For Air Travelers Beginning On May 7, 2025

The TSA’s proposed rule would give the agency “appropriate flexibility” by “explicitly permitting agencies to implement card-based enforcement in phases” and would kick back full enforcement until May 5, 2027.

But this doesn’t mean travelers should wait until that date to get a compliant ID. If the TSA’s proposed rule is accepted, the agency would begin issuing written warnings to travelers who arrive at airport security checkpoints without a REAL ID-compliant identification beginning on the May 7, 2025 deadline. The TSA would track such warnings, which would “serve to incentivize the public to obtain a REAL ID without, or reduced, negative consequences,” according to the proposal.

The proposed rule is currently open for public comment. Beginning May 7, 2025, travelers without a REAL ID driver’s license may use one of the many other forms of compliant ID, including a passport, Global Entry card or Veteran Health Identification Card.

Why It Has Taken So Long To Roll Out REAL ID

The slow uptake of REAL IDs can be blamed on a lack of urgency by states in issuing compliant IDs, despite receiving more than $263 million in grants from the Department of Homeland Security, according to Congressman Carlos A. Giménez (R-Fla.).

“Only four states require REAL ID, which leaves 46 states and five American territories that provide non-REAL IDs as an option,” wrote Giménez last December following a Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security hearing.

Now authorities have run out of runway. “Suffice to say, on May 7, 2025, we are going to encounter utter mayhem at our airports,” Giménez wrote.

That’s what the TSA wants to avoid. In its proposal, the agency points out that it screens approximately 2.5 million passengers per day. If just one percent of those passengers were to present non-REAL ID compliant driver’s licenses at a checkpoint, it would mean turning away 25,000 passengers in just a single day. It would mean 175,000 passengers refused from flying per week, 750,000 per month and 2.25 million in three months.

The agency has proposed a phased warning system to avoid turning away significant numbers of passengers from security checkpoints, which would cause delays and long queues and “may result in canceling, postponing, or adjusting travel plans and incurring associated costs. This may include making alternative travel arrangements whose substitution may include less efficient modes of transportation (e.g., travelers deciding to drive rather than fly).”

Why Air Travelers Will Need A REAL ID

The REAL ID law, passed in response to 9/11, established stronger national security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards. Since then, the TSA has made significant improvements in checkpoint screening, particularly in the areas of identity management, on-person screening, accessible property screening and alarm resolution. The agency also ramped up its vetting capability through Secure Flight, a passenger prescreening program that identifies low and high-risk passengers before they arrive at the airport by matching their names against trusted traveler lists and watchlists“

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