Calif. races to have licenses that work at airports
By Jim Miller, Sacramento Bee
Facing the prospect of millions of Californians turned away at airport security checkpoints, the Brown administration is racing to bring the state’s driver’s licenses up to federal standards.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget proposal includes $220.6 million over the next six years to hire more than 2,700 workers to process applications for licenses and state-issued identification cards that comply with the U.S. Real ID Act. Congress approved the law after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks exposed security weaknesses in many states’ driver’s licenses.
About 25 states have licenses and ID cards that comply with the 2005 law, but California and other states were granted extensions. The Trump administration, though, has signaled there will be no more delays: Beginning Oct. 1, 2020, every air traveler will need to show a driver’s license or state-issued ID card that complies with the federal law to board an airplane, or bring along a passport or other form of identification accepted by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
