States urged to comply with ID rule
WASHINGTON -- Millions of residents of three states will soon face tougher and longer screening at airport checkpoints if their governors defy a federal law requiring new, more-secure driver's licenses.
Maine, New Hampshire and South Carolina have until March 31 to say whether they plan to comply with the law, which they say is costly and will inconvenience residents by forcing them to get new licenses.
If the states don't comply, the Homeland Security Department will bar travelers from using those state's licenses and ID cards to board airplanes starting May 11.
"We are not bluffing," department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.
Some fear massive confusion and delays at the 15 airports in the three states. Passengers showing unacceptable licenses will be pulled aside for additional screening, possibly including pat-downs.
"It would create havoc," said Harrison Rearden of the Columbia Metropolitan Airport board in South Carolina's capital.
The Homeland Security Department warns on its website that passengers with unacceptable licenses "may experience delays" at checkpoints. Travelers with passports or military IDs will avoid the extra screening. Thirty percent of Americans have passports, the State Department says.
Homeland Security officials are in discussions with governors of the three states, Kudwa said. Each of the states enacted a law last year barring it from complying with the 2005 federal Real ID Act. That law set a May 11 deadline for states to issue tamper-resistant licenses that require proof of citizenship and address. The department pushed back the deadline and for now requires states only to seek an extension by March 31.
Maine Gov. John Baldacci has received thousands of e-mails urging him to defy the law, spokesman David Farmer said. But a Feb. 29 letter from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, warns that not seeking an extension would cause residents "exponential increases in wait times for airport security screening."
"We have not requested an extension but we haven't ruled it out," Farmer said.
Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, said the state has not sought an extension because its licenses are "already very secure."
The federal law would cost the state $66 million over five years and force residents to wait two hours in line for a new license, Sawyer said. For people who don't fly often, extra airport screening "would be far less bad than the inconvenience of having to wait two hours at a DMV," Sawyer said.
New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch sent the Homeland Security a letter Feb. 25 asking that the state's licenses "continue to be acceptable" after May 11. The letter does not seek a deadline extension. Kudwa said the department has "not officially rejected the letter" and is working with Lynch.
Late Friday, the department said it would accept Montana licenses after May 11 even though the state has not sought an extension and has not said it would comply with the law. The department said recent improvements to Montana licenses "meet the principal security features required at this time by Real ID."