KANSAS CITY – The Real ID Act was passed in 2005 in the wake of September 11th - with the goal of making security screening at airports more secure with minimum security standards for driver’s licenses and ID cards across all 50 states.
Seventeen years later it still has not been implemented.
The Department of Homeland Security now announcing it is postponing the launch of full enforcement of the Real ID system another two years - from May of 2023 to May of 2025.
A previous deadline of October 2020 was pushed to October 2021, and then pushed again to May 2023.
DHS blaming the COVID pandemic for this latest postponement, saying the process was hindered by state driver’s license agencies working through a backlog during the pandemic.
State implementation of Real ID had been delayed as well through the years - but Kansas became compliant in 2017, Missouri in 2019.
In fact, all 50 states have met the requirements to issue Real ID compliant driver’s licenses.
But, its full use at airport security checkpoints - won’t happen for another two and a half years. Nearly 20 years after it became law.