Real ID arrives on 1 January : Will you be allowed to board a domestic flight?

Passed by Congress in 2005, Real ID sought to make driver’s licenses a more secure form of identification by adding biometric information and RFID capabilities to them. States objected to the program (even current DHS secretary Janet Napolitano, who was then governor of Arizona): Driver licenses are issued by the states, so the states would have to bear the burden of extra expense and work.

If a state did not conform to the requirements spelled out in the Real ID Act, residents would not be allowed to fly on domestic flights operated by commercial airlines (they would also not be allowed to open bank accounts or enter federal buildings).

Neala Schwartzberg writes that a compromise called Pass ID was created instead, but Congress has shown little interest in pushing that bill through. States, in the meantime, have made their licenses more and more secure in keeping with the spirit of the law.

Schwartzberg notes that currently there are more than thirty states that have not agreed to Real ID and are therefore out of compliance. On 1 January, unless an extension is granted by DHS (and it appears an extension will be issued), residents of those states have IDs that are not acceptable under the Real ID act and will not be able to use their driver’s licenses for identification for domestic flights.

The airlines have said nothing about this issue Schwartzberg contacted American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, two carriers with a significant presence in Albuquerque and Texas which also cover much of the United States. American Airlines spokesperson Tim Smith said:“We are not doing anything about it at this time, at the airline level. Here’s why: at this stage it is a ‘head-butting’ contest between TSA, Homeland Security, and Congress, which passed the law.” He continues: “With more than half the states in America unable to comply with the [Real ID] law at this time, we believe that this issue will have to be worked out among those parties in some fashion. We suspect none of them is prepared to turn away tens of thousands of travelers on January 1.”

Southwest Airlines spokesperson Brandy King said: “If there is no extension, customers will still be allowed to travel.” She explained. “If you lost your driver’s license and had to take a flight you would still be allowed to travel, but you are subject to extra screening…. We are asked this all the time if they are in the middle of trip and lost their ID or right before departure.”

Could it be this simple? Apparently, yes, according to King. “TSA has policies in place and guidelines as to how to screen customers with valid and not valid ID. Of course, the process is definitely more streamlined if travelers have a valid ID and the extra screening is not required.”

Schwartzberg went to the TSA Web site to see what they had to say about it. The Web site said: “Effective June 21, 2008, adult passengers (18 and over) are required to show a U.S. federal or state-issued photo ID that contains the following: name, date of birth, gender, expiration date and a tamper-resistant feature in order to be allowed to go through the checkpoint and onto their flight.”

The site then said this: “Passengers who do not or cannot present an acceptable ID will have to provide information to the Transportation Security Officer performing Travel Document Checking duties in order to verify their identity. Passengers who are cleared through this process may be subject to additional screening. Passengers whose identity cannot be verified by TSA may not be allowed to go through the checkpoint or onto an airplane.”

“So this is the sticky point,” Schwartzberg writes, “and likely the reason the airlines are taking a watch-and-wait position. Of course, the TSA website isn’t talking about what that additional screening involves. And it would probably be good policy to bring whatever additional ID available.”

Who, then, will travelers blame if they can’t get through security? It will not be the airlines. This is not their policy. It probably will not be the state. Most states, New Mexico included, even if they are not in technical compliance with all the facets of Real ID have incorporated high-tech security into their licenses.

“If I was a betting person (and I am from time to time) I’d bet the backed-up-down-the-corridor traveler who is then turned away after presenting his or her state-issued, official complete with hologram ID will blame Homeland Security,” Schwartzberg concludes.