Get REAL: there is still resistance to federally required secure driver's licenses, but most states are on the road to compliance.

• Author: Greenblatt, Alan

Congress and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security spent much of last year playing a game of chicken. In the end, DHS blinked.

The department hoped Congress would pass modifications to the REAL ID law, which calls on states to strengthen security of driver's licenses. But the modification bill, known as Pass ID--which eliminates the need for new databases and some other requirements--has gained little traction on Capitol Hill.

As a result, DHS officials grew anxious toward the end of 2009 that travelers who were taking off for the holidays would not be able to get back on airplanes for return trips in the new year, because a REAL ID interim compliance deadline was set to take effect Dec. 31.

With states not ready--and, in some cases, not willing--to comply, that would have rendered licenses useless for getting through security checks at airports nationwide. To avoid that massive snafu, on Dec. 18 the department waived the interim compliance deadline, but left the full compliance deadline of May 2011. That gave states and the federal government time to get systems up and running.

But with the deadline that far off, only about a half dozen states even bothered looking at legislation addressing REAL ID this year. In 2009, 42 bills were considered in 25 states.

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Now, however, states are starting to act. REAL ID compliance takes money, but not all the needed changes require legislation. In a number of states, motor vehicle departments are doing the behind-the-scenes work necessary to move closer to compliance, including updating computer systems, installing face-recognition software and setting up more secure card production rooms.

Only Florida, at this point, is issuing licenses that meet the requirements of the federal law, the department reports. But every state is moving toward compliance. Even in the 14 states where legislatures have explicitly rejected REAL ID through laws or resolutions, some moves have been made in the direction of compliance. But there's still a lot of work to do if they're going to meet next year's deadline. There's a growing sense that states shouldn't count on deadlines getting pushed back again or on new momentum behind Pass ID.

DHS has been fairly flexible in working with individual states trying to comply, bur at this point states can't expect blanket relief.

"The federal DHS put all their eggs in the Pass ID basket, and that's DOA at the moment," says Jennifer Cohan, director of...