Real ID - Texas ensures licenses, ID cards conform

Texas is already making some changes in the way it administers driver's licenses, according to Tela Mange with the Texas Department of Public Safety.

"We are currently redesigning the Texas Driver's License and State ID cards," she said. "That will be finished by the end of the year. We will be adding various security features that will make it much more difficult to counterfeit and much easier to spot a fake ID."

Mange said she could not elaborate on some of the new security features, but said that Texas licenses and IDs would comply with the REAL ID standards by the 2009 deadline.

"There are several items from the REAL ID program that must be approved by the Texas Legislature," she said. The legislature's next regular session convenes in January 2009.

The Public Safety Commission said the increased federal security requirements for driver's licenses would cost $107 million in Texas over the next two-year budget period. However, that is about $102 million less than originally estimated, thanks to the federal rule changes.

Texas officials, however, still say the federal government should bear the cost of the program, which was pushed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The program is meant to keep a tighter rein on government-issued identification cards so terrorists and illegal immigrants cannot obtain them.

Other states have not been as cooperative. At least 13 states, including Maine, New Hampshire and Oklahoma, have passed legislation stipulating that they will not be cooperating with the program, and others have simply criticized the program. Citizens in states that do not comply with the new rules will have to use passports for federal purposes.

Advocates of REAL ID point to other advantages of the law besides hindering the creation of false credentials for criminals and foreign militants. For example, they cite the laws' contribution to the "entity resolution" problems that face state prison systems, where convicts frequently seek to change their identities to foil prosecution for crimes committed under other names.

The act calls for states to begin issuing new federal licenses, lasting no longer than eight years, by Dec. 31, 2009, unless they were not granted an extension. It also requires all 245 million license and state ID holders to visit their local departments of motor vehicles and apply for a Real ID by 2013. Applicants must bring a photo ID, birth certificate, proof of Social Security number and proof of residence, and states must maintain and protect massive databases housing the information.