People from four U.S. states, including New York, may need a passport to fly domestically starting Jan. 1, 2016.

Standard licenses from New York, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and American Samoa do not meet federal standards outlined in the Real ID Act, and are therefore considered “noncompliant” with security standards, according to a Sept. 23 Huffington Post article.

The Real ID Act was enacted in 2005 and since then 46 states have complied with the policy.

Keli Perrin, assistant director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT), said for the last 10 years, states have eventually complied with the Real ID Act, leaving four states still resisting the act.

Fifteen years ago, Perrin said, hundreds of documents could be accepted at the border, so the federal government passed the Real ID Act in an effort to limit the number of documents accepted.

When the Real ID Act was first passed, Perrin said some people thought it seemed like the government was trying to establish a national ID. National IDs, Perrin added, are commonly associated with countries that are not free, which is why many people were initially opposed to the act.

Instead of the federal government paying state governments to comply with the Real ID Act, Perrin said, the federal government is instead telling states to comply or their residents cannot fly domestically.

Even though these four states may only have until the end of the year to comply with the act, Perrin said, “no one should be panicked.”

“(The Department of Homeland Security) doesn’t want to make people angry,” Perrin said. “And states don’t want to be told what to do by the federal government. But I do think New York will eventually end up complying.”

Bill Smullen, director of national security studies at Syracuse University, said he was surprised to find New York in this predicament.

“For New York not to have done something before, this is shocking to me,” Smullen said. “I hope they do something before it is an actual policy. I’m hoping they’ll find some middle ground.”

Smullen said not everyone has or needs a passport. He added that elderly people should not have to go through the process of getting a passport just to visit their grandchildren.

If the Real ID Act requires the passports in 2016, there will be a three-month grace period where travelers who do not have a license compliant with the act will be warned that their IDs are no longer valid for domestic flights.

“All that does is kick the can down the road,” Smullen said in response to the three-month grace period. “We need more than an extension. We need an alternative to the policy.”

Smullen said he does not think that this act makes or will make a measurable difference to national security. Since Smullen is a frequent flyer, he often goes through the TSA pre-check. He added that utilizing the TSA pre-check is probably a better solution than requiring people in these four states to have a passport when flying domestically.

Some people, Smullen said, don’t have an extra $110 to spend on a passport. He added that acquiring a passport is not an overnight process, so he does not think that the federal government should require travelers to have them.

However, Robert Murrett, deputy director of INSCT, said he thinks every college student should have a passport despite the cost.

While Murrett said he thinks requiring a passport will make the lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles longer, he said, “You almost have to fall back on another form of government-issued ID, which many of us have, or a passport.”

If the act is implemented in 2016 and a person does not have a passport, the TSA will also accept enhanced driver’s licenses, which allow people to travel to and from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, according to a Sept. 17 Travel and Leisure article.

Of the four noncompliant states, however, only New York and Minnesota offer enhanced licenses.

Published on September 29, 2015 at 9:20 pm

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann