REAL-ID roll-out to be delayed

Like a last minute call from the governor to death row, the Bush administration has given states a reprieve on the implementation of the REAL-ID Act. As readers no doubt recall, the law — which requires standardized features on driver’s licences — had come under heavy fire as an $11 billion unfunded manadate, and state officials have been actively lobbying the Democratic congress to make changes. These efforts in turn have come as Democrats have been feuding with the administration over the implementation of the 9/11 Commission Report’s suggestions, and yesterday’s retreat on the REAL-ID Act is seen by many as an attempt to at least take that issue off the table.

According to a senior DHS official, that agency will now take a liberal approach in interpreting the act’s requirement that the states comply by May 2008 — one that echoes similar rulings about the implementation of HSPD-12. Instead of claiming that the deadline sets out the time when the program is to be fully running, DHS will instead mark that as the date that they must begin issuing compliant identification cards, with full roll-out to be completed on a “reasonably prompt basis” over five years. States could also apply for waivers of they required them, although no details have been finalized on that front. The result, observers say, is that the program would now have an effective start date at the end of 2009.

-read more in Spencer Hsu and Stephen Barr’s Washington Post report