Senate Democrat presses Noem on Real ID deadline

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

04/18/25 2:19 PM ET


Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) pressed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on the Real ID requirements being implemented in two weeks.

The new measure requires individuals to provide a U.S. birth certificate or a U.S. passport, or a permanent resident card (green card) if they are a non-U.S. citizen, in order to obtain a compliant driver’s license. Applicants may also be asked to provide proof of their Social Security number and proof of residency.

Reed wrote a Thursday letter to the leader urging her to explain how an abrupt change in verifying travelers’ identity would not interrupt services from proceeding effectively. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said about 20 percent of air travelers still use a form of identification that is not compliant with Real ID requirements, according to the lawmaker. Travelers will need to meet the new requirements to fly domestically.

“Since it seems likely that many travelers will not have a compliant ID by May 7th, please describe how you will ensure that there are not delays at TSA security checkpoints and what steps the TSA is taking to process travelers who arrive at airport security checkpoints without REAL ID compliant identification,” Reed wrote.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5256142-senate-democrat-presses-noem-on-real-id-deadline/

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Link to Senator Reed LETTER (PDF) - https://www.reed.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_secretary_noem_re_tsa_real_id_enforcement_signed_41725.pdf

[SWBTATTReg]

1. These 'real ID' requirements have been around for a long time. My advice, is to finally get them done for you and

others. Get it over and done w/.

[NoRethugFriends]

4. The lines in my area are four hours long.

I have a passport, so I'll wait until after it slows down.

[Rebl2]

6. I thought

a passport was just as good as the real id. Am I wrong?

[NoRethugFriends]

8. No you're not wrong

But I'd rather not carry my passport around when I don't need to.

[BumRushDaShow]

16. An alernate option is to get a "Passport Card"

which has your passport info and is the size of a driver's license. They are not valid for full international travel but can be used for some countries and definitely to travel domestically like a Real ID. They can be had at a discount when renewing a passport but are also sold separately. I definitely agree that it would be a PITA (and security concern) to carry around a passport for ID purposes.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/need-passport/card.html

[Dem2theMax]

5. I did mine the last time I had to do my driver's license renewal.

It was easy for me. I have all the documents they wanted. The funny part was, I've never been married. I'm a woman, and the woman at the counter at the DMV would not believe that I had never been married. She couldn't understand how my name matched my birth certificate.

[mwooldri]

14. I guess my wife would short circuit her bain then...

... We've been married for 26+ years. She kept her last name, primarily because she didn't want to go through the hassle of changing her name. Plus my last name isn't exactly the best.

So she's married and still has her last name.

[slightlv]

9. This is where you and I will depart agreements...

First, I view the REAL ID as a "papers please" move... which is supposedly unconstitutional for us.

Second, it's a frustrating, never-ending turmoil to "get it done" if you're a woman, especially of a certain age...

Third, now they'll stop you from flying domestically without this "special" ID. The next step, which is where it's really meant to be pushed, is at the voting booth. Repugs and Libertarians want to strip the right to vote from women, and this is the perfect domino to "get it done."

Three times I've tried to get all the papers together to do this, and they ALWAYS find something else to deny it. I've tried off and on for 2 years. This last time, in February, was the epitome of illogical stupidity. I FINALLY found the marriage license with my current husband. And they rejected it because the signature block of one of the deputies at the clerks office used a spattering of white out on it. I was told to send away for a certified copy and return with it. When I told her it would come in on white paper in which white out couldn't be seen, the attendant just shrugged her shoulders. I told her... getting VERY frustrated by this point (I'd already been there working on this for 4 hours), why didn't they just make a copy of the certified marriage license I'd given them. It's be on white copy paper, which is all they'd get from Texas, anyway. She just told me to save the envelope with the postmark to prove it'd been mailed to me as a new copy. Can we say absolutely dumbstruck! By this time, I was getting quite loud about what I thought this was all about where women's rights were concerned... enough that the guardian cop moved closer to me and my husband.

I finally came home, downloaded the damn "give me a copy" form from the Bexar County site, and along with a certified check for $16 (for two copies), mailed it certified mail. Guess what? It's been WEEKS and I never received notification that my form/check was delivered, nor have I heard jack squat from Texas.

At my age and infirmity, I can't just drive down to Texas, and demand a copy in person. It all has to be done with Dejoy's jacked up mail sabotage and texas republicans in seats of power (even this kind of petty power). Please tell me, at this point, just how am I suppose to "just get it done." What's even worse, if and when I ever get a copy, I'll go back and the red clan idiots in KS will find some OTHER way to screw with me.

Problem is, I'm not the only one. Some people are actually old enough to not be able to obtain a certified copy of their birth certificate. My mother screwed up when she had me, and listed the wrong last name for herself. Her step-father had raised her, but had never adopted her, although she used his last name for everything. So, my original birth certificate has a separate "corrected" copy attached to it (I did the attaching so I wouldn't lose it). My first hurdle this last time at DMV was getting them to accept that as true and certified.

Yes... I know the date is coming up real soon... and I've been trying for years to fix this problem. I honestly don't know what else I can do that I haven't already done. But man, stupidity in this country is at an all time high and it's expressed proudly... especially if you're female.

And mark my words... they will stop anyone from voting at some point who does not have one of these "real ids". And crap... that's what that Social Security card was suppose to represent when they first foisted it on everyone... including newborns. I'm a woman. I'm Pagan. I'm a Vietnam era veteran. Most of all, tho, I'm a proud Democrat. And those alone will keep us away from our rights and civil liberties. First it was the SS card; now it's the REAL ID; ask yourself what's next? Because it's never enough for these people, especially if you're (demonstrably in an "out" group).

I'm sorry to have popped off to you... it's not meant to you personally, I promise. I just have been through the song and dance for so many years, and been rejected for such incredibly stupid reasons (certified corrected birth certificate; final divorce decree; last marriage license), that THIS is a real cause celeb for me. And yet, despite what I've been through trying to give them what they want and always having it change on me... I still sit here without one of those misogynistic id cards. Worse, I have friends in the same boat as me, who've been trying as long as, or even longer, than me... and we're all at the point of wanting to kill the next idiot who demands something different than what's written on the "required" paper... or paying the price for someone elses "screw up" like a blob of white out on one of the papers. Try parsing every piece of your life to s republican's satisfaction when you've moved so many times you've lost count because of military service or just plan living your life. Believe me, I WISH I could "just get it done." So do friends I've made because of this racist fiasco. First it was the Middle-Easterners because of 911. Before and after that, Hispanics and Blacks. Now it's anyone not lily white, christian, and of the "proper" gender. It's so funny how in all the times I've been through this at the DMV, I've never seen or heard them give any male the kind of 3rd degree and hassle that they've given me and other women. And yes, if I had money and my choice, I'd get the hell out of this country after what I've been through and what I see coming down the line for others like me. But here, age is the first barrier and money the second (tho enough money can counteract the old age issue). But nothing counteracts a Brownbackian Republican.

Okay... time to bring my blood pressure back down to something approaching normal levels. Again, I apologize if I made you feel like I was dumping on you. I've just heard the same thing as what you said so many times, by people who have no idea what kinds of trouble a person can have just trying to meet the bare requirements. Like I said, it's an understatement to say it... but this is truly a horrendous pet peeve of mine. Hell, maybe one of my signs tomorrow will be about Real ID and protecting women's rights.

[AllyCat]

12. You don't seem to understand. This is a huge burden

For people just to be able to travel. It’s an additional headache for women.

It is the point of needing to do this that is the problem. There was nothing wrong with the way we used to do it.

Now we need a new ID. It’s an undue burden.

[slightlv]

13. Ah... i apoligized

And I'll not say how you made me feel with your little remark. You didn't make the requirements? Well strike me amazed! Duh... i had hoped giving you an actual case study might open you to see that things aren't black and white. You got yours? Great... but through no fault of our own there's a lot of us not as acceptable as you. I'm surprised you couldn't feel the level of frustration and understand that. Again you took it personally and as I said I'm sorry. I honestly didn't mean it that way.

[msongs]

2. ask her aabout her kinky pics from el salvador nt

[AZJonnie]

3. How is this a 'new initiative', exactly?

The REAL ID act was passed in the aftermath of 9/11, and meant to go into effect in 2008. However, the enforcement of the requirement to provide Real ID compliant documentation to board commercial aircraft has been postponed over and over again. Most recently back in 2022, when the deadline was extended two years from 2023 to May 7, 2025.

I'm not saying I fundamentally agree with the whole idea behind the Act, but if anyone is surprised and/or still has not procured the needed ID, SEVENTEEN YEARS after it was first meant to be implemented? Outside of some fairly rare extenuating circumstances, citizens and green card holders mostly have themselves to blame, no offense intended to anyone

This being said, I find the whole idea of the Act to be pretty nefarious in the sense that it is NOT, effectively, just a means to determine identity. It also has an obvious intention of preventing any undocumented person from being able to fly. In Arizona, you need ALL those things mentioned in the article to get the Star on your license. A certified Birth Certificate or Passport, PLUS a copy of your Social Security card, PLUS proof of residency in AZ. It actually has more documentation requirements than getting a US passport, and it most certainly seems like its requirements are meant to establish at minimum a person's legal right to be in the USA generally, even if not expressly proving 'citizenship' (since green card holders can get one).

Lastly, I'd like to see someone ask the regime whether exceptions for flying w/o a Real Id are going to be granted in cases of their much-vaunted 'self-deportation' procedures?

[wildflowergardener]

7. Real id

My mother in her 80s and disabled had to go to court to obtain a new birth certificate so she could get a real ID - for some reason her parents never put her first name on her birth certificate- she had to hire a lawyer to help her with all this so it is a big deal and complicated for some people.

[slightlv]

10. Not to mention, one can incur a lot of expense trying to get it done

at an age where money is not exactly plentiful. Especially if you're one of the millions of us living from one SS check to another. Talk about feeling like you're not wanted? Even by people on this board! Give me a choice, and let me go back to the home of my ancestors. Ireland isn't perfect by any means, but it beats the hell out of this country. I missed the right of return by one generation.

Wanna hear just HOW dumb this can get in redville? My daughter was hired a few years back for a DoD position. She had to fight tooth and nail about her birth certificate. She was born at Wilford Hall Hospital, on Lackland AFB, in Bexar County, city of San Antonio. But because her original certified birth certificate didn't list the "city" where Lackland AFB is located, she almost didn't get the job. She still hasn't gotten a Real ID, either, simply because of the "official" birth certificates the AF was using at the time. No idea if it's the same today... tho with all this "joint base" stuff it's probably changed. It's idiocy like this that in no way reflects on us and what we offer for their requirements, its if we deviate from the bare minimum norm of what a republican can critically understand. BTW... to actually "get" the job, she had to get someone from Lackland on the phone to talk with these idiots. Oh, that I would be so lucky to be able to do that regarding the blob of white out on my original marriage license to my (current) husband. I did decide when he dies, I'll never have anything to do with a man again... and certainly not marriage. It's nothing but a trap for women.

[hunter]

15. Eventually I'll probably be required to have Real ID to vote but by then voting will be pointless.

Real ID is not not making the U.S.A. a better place.

It's "Papers Please!" Nazi shit with a huge potential for abuse.

[madville]

17. This has been getting postponed for almost 20 years

At this point the only way to force compliance is to make it an inconvenience for those that still haven’t done it. It’s also partly the fault of some states for continuing to issue drivers licenses without making people meet the Real ID requirements.