Real ID Deadline Postponed Another 2 Years
Dec. 5th, 2022 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerThe REAL ID program, which requires enhanced drivers licenses to do all sorts of not-driving things such as enter an airport, federal courthouse, or your Congressional representative's office, has been postponed another 2 years. Today the DHS pushed back the deadline for full enforcement from May 3, 2023 to May 7, 2025. Source: DHS press release, 5 Dec 2022.
The reason that I note it has been pushed back again is that the REAL ID program was enacted into law back in... 2005. With the latest extension it will have taken twenty years to implement— or more if it gets delayed again! As the idea of creating more secure identity documents was one of the recommendations coming out of the 9/11 commission, one has to wonder the fact it will have taken 24 years since 9/11 to get them implemented demonstrates they're just security theater and actually not consequential for public safety.
There are many reasons why this program has been delayed for so many years. Initially it was because a lot of states opposed the program that created federal security requirements on state-issued driving permits. States opposed it partly because Congress passed without hearings or debate. In the House, it was dropped from a must-pass appropriations bill because of member objections but then reinserted in conference committee. The full House then approved the appropriations bill with the unrelated Real ID rider, as did the Senate. Et voilà: How A Bill (Really) Becomes A Law.
While many states fought the law for several years, it did remain the law. The federal government extended deadlines a few times to give them more time to comply. When it looked like the final extension would end in 2019, the roughly half the states that were holding out aligned with the program so as not to create hardships for their citizens when traveling or attempting to interact with the federal government. But then another extension came, giving states until 2020... at which point the Coronavirus Pandemic arrived, so the federal government extended it a few more times, ultimately to May 2023. And now it's May 2025.
The reason that I note it has been pushed back again is that the REAL ID program was enacted into law back in... 2005. With the latest extension it will have taken twenty years to implement— or more if it gets delayed again! As the idea of creating more secure identity documents was one of the recommendations coming out of the 9/11 commission, one has to wonder the fact it will have taken 24 years since 9/11 to get them implemented demonstrates they're just security theater and actually not consequential for public safety.
There are many reasons why this program has been delayed for so many years. Initially it was because a lot of states opposed the program that created federal security requirements on state-issued driving permits. States opposed it partly because Congress passed without hearings or debate. In the House, it was dropped from a must-pass appropriations bill because of member objections but then reinserted in conference committee. The full House then approved the appropriations bill with the unrelated Real ID rider, as did the Senate. Et voilà: How A Bill (Really) Becomes A Law.
While many states fought the law for several years, it did remain the law. The federal government extended deadlines a few times to give them more time to comply. When it looked like the final extension would end in 2019, the roughly half the states that were holding out aligned with the program so as not to create hardships for their citizens when traveling or attempting to interact with the federal government. But then another extension came, giving states until 2020... at which point the Coronavirus Pandemic arrived, so the federal government extended it a few more times, ultimately to May 2023. And now it's May 2025.
