Starting Jan. 22, 2018, Pennsylvania, along with eight other states, will no longer accept driver’s licenses as a proper form of identification for domestic air traveling. The REAL ID Act, which was passed in 2005, now restricts Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington from allowing residents to use their driver’s license as proper identification when it comes to airfare and the entrance of federal buildings.

“The [REAL ID] act established minimum security standards for license issuance and production and prohibits federal agencies from accepting driver’s licenses and identification cards from states not meeting the act’s minimum standards,” according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The majority of the states have made changes to comply with this Federal law, but some that have yet to change or plan to change their laws. The main reason for their resistance is the amount of money needed to get new forms of ID and the laws that would need to be passed.

Pennsylvania, along with six other states, were granted an extension that allows Federal agencies to accept driver’s licenses and identification cards until June 6, according to the DHS.

Come Jan. 22, 2018, all residents of states that are still not compliant or have been given extensions will need to show an alternative form of identification that is compliant to the REAL ID act to board any domestic air travel flight. Resistance that are from compliant state will be able to use their state-issued driver’s licenses.
All states were given the chance to become compliant with the REAL ID act, but Pennsylvania passed a law stating that the state wouldn’t comply with this Federal law because the state’s authorities thought the law was constitutional.

“The state’s noncompliance act is brief—it’s only 20 lines on the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s website—but it challenges the ‘constitutionality and legality’ of the federal government’s REAL ID Act of 2005,” NBC stated.
New reports have recently surfaced, explaining that Pennsylvania may actually comply after all.

As of now, both the House of Representatives and the Senate have bills that would repeal that law that was put in place to never make Pa complaint. According to Ed Neilson, a Pennsylvania House Democrat who introduced one of the two bills, stated that Governor Tom Wolf from Pennsylvania had expressed confidence in that one of the bills should pass. This would be the first step in making Pennsylvania a compliant state.

Why become compliant now, though? New studies show that residents of Pennsylvania will have to spend roughly $1 billion on passports if Pennsylvania doesn’t comply with the act.

If one of the bills get passed, and Pennsylvania becomes a compliant state, the residents of the state will have to get new forms of identification.

“You’ll also have make an in-person trip to the DMV, no matter what. The REAL ID Act requires each person with a driver’s license to update to a REAL ID compliant license by October 2020. The convenience of renewing online — as you can do now in Pennsylvania — will not be allowed for this first renewal,” Mark Dent, writer for BillyPenn, stated.

Voting on these two new bills will be within the next few weeks and the decision will be announced. If one of the bills aren’t passed, new forms of identification will be needed by June 6 for federal agencies and Jan. 22 for air travel.