GUWonder

So now it’s c. 14 months after printed expiration date — instead of just 12 months after printed expiration date — during the period of the Covid-19 national emergency? Can only imagine for now what bizarre rationale TSA may use to go back to a cut-off of 12 months (or less) after printed expiration date when this national emergency is over.

Since ID and boarding passes and phones act as fomites for this virus too, too bad TSA doesn’t just entirely eliminate the ID and boarding pass checks and help reduce the risks of passengers getting sick from the TSA travel document checks (TDC) and of also protecting the TSA employees from virus exposure due to the TSA TDC process.

Boggie Dog

TSA could visually check for a boarding pass without handling ensuring only people with current passes enter the checkpoint. ID checking is not needed as doing so is not a security measure for TSA operations.

petaluma1

New Jersey shut down their DMV offices. Now no one is going to get anything for at least two weeks, maybe longer.

GUWonder

Automated gates can scan boarding passes to let passengers to proceed to security. It would protect passengers and TSA from the health risks heightened by the TSA TDC, save money over the longer term and still limit airside access to ticketed passengers or those with other scan-accepted passes; but this would require postponing this REAL ID thing indefinitely at airports. And while permanently postponing this REAL ID thing would better protect TSA and passengers from this virus and other pathogens, TSA seems reluctant to accept that and is just tweaking things around the edges so as to not be highlighted as putting health and well-being at risk by continuing with any and all sorts of passenger ID checks by TSA or anything else the TSA does (such as a temporary waiver on hand sanitizer volumes at the passenger screening checkpoints or the ID expiration policy related to the TSA TDC)..

Section 107

For similar reason proponents of FRT are using this situation to boost their arguments for wider implementation.

Boggie Dog

Real ID on steroids! No thanks.

petaluma1

I'd say that TSA is reluctant to change because doing so would only prove that the draconian measures instituted by TSA over the years were really useless.

GUWonder

The proponents of FRT as a TSA TDC substitute aren’t looking to postpone or eliminate the TDC relying upon ID, REAL ID or otherwise. FRT, even against good ID photo capture, is less reliable in getting it right than boarding pass scanning — not that the sellers of the FRT-using technology care as long as they can get sufficient buy-in to make something of it for their personal gain.

Ari

Call from state official:

GUWonder

Given DMVs get a lot of traffic from people who relocate or otherwise need to come in person to renew a license or get a new license, I wonder if the states will also give waivers of some sort or another for driving licenses. There was a time when some states would mail out an extension sticker for DLs. I can't imagine DHS/TSA would like that nowadays when DHS/TSA is still pushing for the public to meet the October deadline for REAL ID.

Ari

https://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/n...h/200316d1.pdf

QtownDave

All driver license centers and photo license centers in Pennsylvania will be closed for two weeks, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said Monday.

As part of the move, expiration dates will be extended for driver licenses, identification cards, vehicle registrations and inspections.

GUWonder

And what if driving in a jurisdiction outside of the DL-issuing-state? Might not be as much a problem for driving in the US, but how about Americans driving in say Mexico or Europe? Without REAL ID, maybe we would still have US states issuing driving licenses that were valid for way longer than has become the case since 9/11 and the REAL ID Act; and then this question wouldn’t have to even be asked.

QtownDave

Shouldn't matter one bit. You are licensed in your State and other States just honor it. If PA says it's good so should they.

GUWonder

Whether it should or shouldn’t, it will matter since some jurisdictions will have authorities who see the printed expiration date and make a fuss about it. Before 9/11 and REAL ID passed, the validity periods of US state DLs were less consistent across the states than they are now, but at least then there were more states whose DLs had longer validity periods than is the case since then. Once this virus situation is under control enough to get people flying again.

Scrapping REAL ID and the mindset that gave us it, would mean that some DLs would still have long validity periods and that DMVs asking DHS for extensions of sort wouldn’t be part of the picture arising from this virus situation. But because of REAL ID, people are out there hoping for an extension from DHS related to this virus. If REAL ID were postponed indefinitely or — even better — rescinded, this problem and the thread about it wouldn’t exist. And that would make flying in America great again.