Spiff

The solution is to stop checking IDs at airports and to stop using any driver's license for any purpose other than to prove the person is licensed to drive on public roads.

scnzzz

I believe that all that is required is a photo ID. Whatever that is. Why would we require passports of non-US citizens - when plenty are here legitimately and happen to also have other forms of ID on their person? TSA screeners are not trained (nor qualified or authorized) to check immigration status. It's not like they would be able to recognize, say, a forged foreign passport. Equally, it is entirely possible for an illegal immigrant (or say, someone who happens to have overstayed their visa) to possess a legitimate foreign passport. TSA <> CBP and I'd very much like it to stay that way. Can you imagine those implications?

Anyway, not showing a US issued ID or foreign passport at the moment currently does not, and IMO should not not in any way impinge upon the right of a person to board a domestic flight as long as they present alternative photo ID.

So let's not make this about illegal immigration please. That's a different topic entirely - and has nothing to do with whether or not TSA screeners can or cannot recognize legitimate forms of ID issued in the United States (which IIRC is what this thread is about).

nrr

Many states would not be too happy to lose control of anything that in the past was totally in their control (probably more on principle than anything else), so I don't see a National DL anytime soon.

jake108

Remarkable how many folks don't know San Juan, PR doesn't require a passport(for US citizens/residents)-been enjoying PR since '92 Quincennario.

To continue, it is little wonder that we never made it past liter pop bottles(reference to going metric), or that zip+5 eludes us.

Yoshi212

Some States may be more than happy to hand over that authority if it comes with Federal Funding to provide the issuing (Go to same Office, Standards are unified to get license, but all is paid for by Fed). Something similar has been happening in NYS for like 15+ years with the conversion of State Highways to Federal Interstate system.

WillCAD

To be fair, those idiot, er, ignorant TSOs really DO know the capital of their country, but they only know it by it's three most common abbreviated names: Washington, Washington DC, or DC. They don't realize that the DC stands for District of Columbia, unless they happen to have lived in or near the District at some point in their lives, so when a District of Columbia ID comes under their noses, they see "Columbia" and instantly think it's an ID from the sovereign nation of Columbia. Even though it's in English.

There has been a lot of talk about that, but there are many reasons why a single license for all 50 states plus territories isn't practical, not the least of which is that driving laws differ from state to state.

A compromise is the Real ID Act of 2005, which sets compliance standards for the state and territorial IDs, so that even though they are still issued and managed by the state govs, they will all conform to a national standard. But compliance costs money, and only a few states have thus far met the standard, while the rest have been given a couple of deferments by DHS.

Too many people complained that metric was somehow "too hard", an argument that boggles my mind - we all grow up with base-10 currency, why is it so difficult to accept base-10 measurements for distance, mass, volume, and temperature? I've even seen some people make the BS claim that metric is somehow "inherently less accurate" than the hodgepodge English system, which is ludicrous, because accuracy has nothing to do with units, and has everything to do with methodology.

Zip+5, however, is simply unnecessary, at least at present. I've never used it myself, and the USPS has no trouble delivering my mail and packages anywhere in the country. If it ever becomes mandatory, I'll certainly use it and won't complain, any more than I did when phone numbers went from seven digits to ten digits in the early 1990s.

joshwex90

Phone numbers went 10 digit later than the early 90s, and in some places, remain 7 digits

pleasantsn

Night club bouncers in Greenwich Village are rather good at this, seen plenty of people get their fakes confiscated. UV light plus a little common sense goes a long way.

Thanks to our federal system and the 10th Amendment, it's very unlikely the US would ever standardize the drivers license or ID system. It's a local thing. States are fairly good at controlling their ID's, so I see the problem more as TSA needing to learn what is acceptable, not the system of issuing ID's needing to change.

FliesWay2Much

The real problem is the TSA doing the airline revenue protection job and becoming orgasmic when Kippie proclaimed, "ID matters."

cleareddirectfluky

If you are referring to the sovereign nation, it's Colombia

WillCAD

I em a carpy speeler. I aslo dont' tipe goodlee.

HkCaGu

Agree that DL standardization is still unlikely, but if it ever comes, it will be in the name of "interstate commerce". After WW1, the federal govt began regulating time (DOT proclaims where the zone boundary is, and that's where it is) and by the mid 1960s, nobody (local bodies) could decide which weekend to switch on/off DST. So far 56+foreign DLs are recognized by cops everywhere generally without problems, but if eventually TSA wins support, it will be under "interstate commerce" (as in flying) for the feds to grab governance.

RichG

In that "Zip+5" somehow got dragged into this thread, I might mention that it's actually Zip+4. You don't have to use it, and in most cases your letter carrier may not know offhand what your "+4" numbers are. However, I use them whenever I know them, or if it's printed in someone's return address. Ultimately, your mail uses Zip+4 (and also carrier route sort) whatever you do. The USPS uses multiple levels of automation and the extra digits get your mail kicked up to a faster group of machines, which might once in a while get your mail delivered more quickly. (Almost) every piece of mail you receive has a barely visible fluorescent orange bar code sprayed on it, which contains the Zip+4, the carrier route number, and other information. In most cases, the letter carrier receives the mail in the morning from the sorting center already sorted in trays in the exact order of his or her stops. So if you just use a 5-digit Zip Code the automation will look it up as part of the process, but that automation is a bit slower.

Now, back to ID's and the TSA: It so happens that New York City is about to begin issuing ID cards for those who want them. I'm not quite sure why, since NY State already issues "non-driver ID's", but it will be interesting to see if the NYC ID's are accepted by the TSA. They ought to be, since they will certainly be "government-issued photo ID's."

Bonanza36

In all fairness, maybe the clerk did not recognize DC as one of the 57 United States.

chollie

Big difference between a slip of the tongue (that someone knows is wrong) and a slip of the brain (where someone thinks s/he is right and is willing to argue the point).

But you know that.