Follow up to the long-standing history of REAL ID enforcement delays.
When then-President George W. Bush signed into law the “Real ID Act of 2005,” American adults initially had a May 11, 2008 deadline to ensure their identification documents met federal standards.
For those who didn’t notice, we didn’t all adopt REAL IDs in 2008.
In fact, a few years later I was working on a driver’s license proposal for a state I won’t identify, and the RFP clearly and emphatically stated that REAL ID compliance for the new driver’s license was not…um…OK.
Even during the short history of the Bredemarket blog, the REAL ID enforcement date of May 5, 2023 has been adopted and superseded. And more recently there was a report that that new date of May 7, 2025 would slip.
Well, that won’t happen.
Or will it?
The (so-called) “final” rule
The Transportation Security Administration has published a final rule which clearly states that the REAL ID enforcement date of May 7, 2025 still stands and has not been delayed.
Or perhaps it’s not so clear.
This rule ensures 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 these provisions in phases. Under this rule, 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 rule also requires agencies to coordinate their plans with DHS, make the plans publicly available, and achieve full enforcement by May 5, 2027.
So the enforcement DEADLINE is May 7, 2025, but FULL enforcement will be achieved by May 5, 2027.
Date subject to change.
It’s not only the U.S.
But at least these decades of delays give me an excuse to share a Geico commercial.
And Europe (the continent, not the band) has its own problems with delays to its Entry/Exit System (EES)…and a graduated rollout is proposed.
Bredemarket 
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