Minimum Standards for Driver's Licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes; Phased Approach for Card-Based Enforcement

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Transportation Security Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>6 CFR Part 37</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. TSA-2023-0003]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1652-AA77</RIN> <SUBJECT>Minimum Standards for Driver's Licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes; Phased Approach for Card-Based Enforcement</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This proposed rule would ensure that Federal agencies have appropriate flexibility to implement the card-based enforcement provisions of the REAL ID regulations after the May 7, 2025, enforcement deadline by explicitly permitting agencies to implement card-based enforcement in phases. This rulemaking proposes that agencies may implement the card-based enforcement provisions through a phased enforcement plan if they determine it is appropriate upon consideration of relevant factors including security, operational feasibility, and public impact. The proposed rule would also require agencies to coordinate their plans with DHS, make the plans publicly available, and achieve full enforcement by May 5, 2027. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before October 15, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> <E T="03">Comments:</E> You may submit comments, identified by the TSA docket number to this rulemaking, to the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS), a government-wide, electronic docket management system. To avoid duplication, please use only one of the following methods: • <E T="03">Electronic Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> Docket Management Facility (M-30), U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001. The Department of Transportation (DOT), which maintains and processes TSA's official regulatory dockets, will scan the submission and post it to FDMS. • <E T="03">Fax:</E> (202) 493-2251. <E T="03">See</E> the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section for format and other information about comment submissions. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> George Petersen, Senior Program Manager, REAL ID Program, Enrollment Services and Vetting Programs, Transportation Security Administration, 6595 Springfield Center Drive, Springfield, VA 20598; telephone: (571) 227-2215; email: <E T="03">george.petersen@tsa.dhs.gov.</E> Please do not submit comments to these addresses. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Public Participation and Request for Comments</HD> DHS invites interested persons to participate in this NPRM by submitting written comments, including relevant data. Comments that will provide the most assistance to DHS will reference a specific portion of this proposed rule, explain the reason for any suggestion or recommended change, and include data, information, or authority that supports such suggestion or recommended change. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Submitting Comments</HD> DHS will review all comments received on this proposed rule, but may choose not to post off-topic, inappropriate, or duplicative comments. To submit a comment: • Go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and follow the instructions for submitting comments for docket number TSA-2023-0003. If your material cannot be submitted using <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> contact the persons listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section of this document for alternative instructions. • All submissions received must include the agency name and docket number for this rulemaking. • Comments posted to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> are posted without change and will include any personal information provided. For more information about privacy and submissions in response to this document, <E T="03">see</E> DHS's eRulemaking System of Records notice (85 FR 14226, March 11, 2020). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Abbreviations and Terms Used in This Document</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DHS—U.S. Department of Homeland Security</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DL/IDs—Driver's Licenses and Identification Cards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM—Notice of Proposed Rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">TSA—Transportation Security Administration</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Executive Summary</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Purpose of the Regulatory Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Overview of the Proposed Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. The REAL ID Act and Implementing Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Progress Towards Full Implementation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Factors Impacting REAL ID Adoption Rates</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Summary of the Proposed Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Phased Enforcement Plans</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Consideration of Further Extending the Card-Based Enforcement Deadline</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Broad DHS Approach</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Phased Enforcement Guidance</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Regulatory Analyses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Economic Impact Analyses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Executive Order 13132 (Federalism)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Executive Order 13175 (Tribal Consultation)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Environmental Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Energy Impact Analysis</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Executive Summary</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Purpose of the Regulatory Action</HD> Secure driver's licenses and identification documents are a vital component of our national security framework. The REAL ID Act, <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> passed by Congress in 2005, enacted the 9/11 Commission's recommendation that the Federal Government “set standards for the issuance of . . . sources of identification, such as drivers licenses.”  <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> The requirements of the REAL ID Act and its implementing regulations set minimum security standards for the issuance of DL/IDs, which are designed to improve the reliability of those State-issued documents. These requirements allow Federal agencies that accept State-issued DL/IDs for official purposes to determine with greater accuracy whether individuals presenting a DL/ID are who they say they are. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Public Law 109-13, 119 Stat. 231, 302 (May 11, 2005) (codified at 49 U.S.C. 30301 note). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  The 9/11 Commission Report, Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (July 2004) (9/11 Commission Report), p. 390, <E T="03">available at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GPO-911REPORT</E> (last visited April 16, 2024). </FTNT> Pursuant to the current REAL ID regulations, after REAL ID card-based enforcement begins on May 7, 2025, Federal agencies may only accept State-issued driver's licenses and identification cards (DL/IDs) for official purposes, as defined in the REAL ID Act and regulation, if that DL/ID is issued in accordance with REAL ID requirements by a REAL ID-compliant State. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> In order to fully realize the enhanced security provided by the REAL ID requirements, DHS is committed to beginning card-based enforcement on May 7, 2025. However, as of January 2024, only approximately 56 percent of DL/IDs in circulation nationally are REAL ID-compliant. less than 60 percent of DL/IDs in circulation are REAL ID-compliant, and in 22 States less than 40 percent are REAL ID-compliant. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> Further, because of the history of extensions related to REAL ID enforcement, DHS believes that the public may continue to expect that additional extensions are likely and not feel urgency to obtain a REAL ID. DHS believes this pattern is likely to delay increased adoption in many States despite best efforts to inform the public, potentially leading to last-minute surges in demand for REAL IDs leading up to the deadline. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  6 CFR 37.5(b). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Based on REAL ID issuance data, as of January 2024, voluntarily submitted monthly to DHS by the compliant states. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  DHS uses “states” and “licensing jurisdictions” interchangeably throughout this document to refer collectively to the 56 different U.S. jurisdictions that issue DL/IDs that are governed by the REAL ID regulations. These jurisdictions are the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. 6 CFR 37.3. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See supra</E> note 3. </FTNT> DHS believes this surge could overwhelm States and result in backlogs and delays in REAL ID issuance. In light of this, DHS anticipates that a significant number of individuals seeking to use their DL/ID for a REAL ID official purposes on and after May 7, 2025, may not have a compliant DL/ID. DHS recognizes that this could result in a situation where individuals are unable to present a compliant DL/ID to access a Federal facility or board a federally regulated commercial aircraft on a large scale. For some agencies, this scenario may raise serious concerns related to security, agency operations, and potential impact to the public. While these concerns are especially acute in an airport security environment, DHS anticipates that other Federal agencies that operate facilitie ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 181k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━