cordelli

Real ID is an option in my state, it is not required. If somebody wants it, they can get it. If they don't nobody is forcing them.

Not really sure why that makes everybody living in the state materially worse off.

Yeah, having a choice in getting it not, we are all the worse because of it.

Sure.

GUWonder

Elements of the REAL ID Act have been implemented in the 13 states and have come with a material cost for citizens of these states. The requirements create costs for the states and its taxpaying citizens even where EDL is a "choice" since the implementation isn't generally free even where the EDL-selectees are paying some sort of premium for the EDL.

Pesky Monkey

The intended endgame of this act was to make flying safe. How does it do so? Has flying been especially dangerous lately? What great benefit does this super duper id give us?

cordelli

Sorry, I don't believe this thread is about the debate of should states move to a Real ID system or not. There are dozens, if not hundreds of other threads on that subject.

BStrauss3

Agree... return to post #2

If interpreted strictly, only licenses from the 13 in-compliance states will be accepted after that date...

chollie

See post #7. Moot point now, non-compliant states have been granted a last-minute 'temporary' reprieve.

cordelli

That changed on December 20th,

Beginning January 15, 2013, those states not found to meet the standards will receive a temporary deferment that will allow Federal agencies to continue to accept their licenses and identification cards for boarding commercial aircraft and other official purposes.

Pesky Monkey

It's not about the states moving to a Real ID system. It's why is the TSA requiring real ID?

chollie

+1 Just a back-door way of introducing a national ID.

cbn42

Once again, more TSA bashing.

The TSA is requiring REAL ID because Congress passed a bill requiring it. I doubt TSA wants to give anyone an enhanced patdown because their state didn't meet some technical requirement in a bill passed in 2005. In fact, DHS (parent department of TSA) has done everything in its power to weaken REAL ID, including issuing regulations that are as weak as permissible under the Act and granting deferment after deferment in order to give Congress time to modify/repeal it.

But since this is Flyertalk, I guess it's always TSA's fault.

chollie

You are correct, it is not TSA (Pistole) who is (officially) behind RealID. His boss calls the shots on this one, but it is unlikely that she does so without his input on the matter.

Congress passed the law (an added rider to a 'must pass' otherwise unrelated bill). The new federal ID cards are to be accepted for 'official purposes' by the federal government - and DHS is the agency tasked with defining those 'special purposes' - currently, entering federal buildings, nuclear power plants and ....boarding commercial airlines.

This is why it is so easy for DHS to keep sliding the final 'you do not fly without RealID date' - because DHS is in charge of deciding where it gets used (federally).

Dubai Stu

I remember that Congress originally declared in the 1800s that we were moving to the metric system and continued extending the deadline until the present:

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/dates.htm

Congressional deadlines are often more in the nature of a can that can be continuously "kicked."

König

Hasn't this always been a way of implementing new things in the USA? If something new is implemented gradually without public attention, the US population will eat it and won't blink. If you loudly announce it before implementing, there will always be a backlash. If the US companies started selling stuff in hard metric units slowly over the course of 20-30 years (albeit still putting US units prominently), everybody would be used to buying produce in litres and kilogrammes by now.

Same goes for a so-called national ID card. US passport is already a de-facto national ID because it is a federally-issued identity document that also indicates the citizenship and can be used as a travel document. Why is there no fuss about the passport? Because it is not mandatory?

Chaos.Defined

Someone noticed?

GUWonder

The US passport is neither mandatory nor a national ID of the sort that exists in many parts of Europe where everyone is recorded in the central government system with a number and where the inclusion in the national ID registry systems is mandatory for citizens and often even non-citizen residents. [Millions of US citizens don't even have a SSA number; and many, many millions more of US citizens don't have a US passport. (A lot of people without SSA numbers do have US passports.)]

The REAL ID Act faces opposition because of the mandated burdens it has placed on states and states' citizens; it also faces a lot of fuss because of the federalist nature of the US and of US persons, combined or not with the additional expenses the federal government's mandate places on constituent states and/or states' citizens. US citizens making an issue of the hassles the US government has created seems to be a practical invitation to petitioned criticism.

The opposition to REAL ID would probable be less if the TSA didn't waste resources doing ID and boarding pass checks while missing WEIs, but that alone wouldn't wipe out all of the due fuss about the federal government mandate.