House Leader Confident OK Legislature Will Approve REAL ID Compliance Plan

Wednesday, January 4th 2017, 1:36 pm

By: Dana Hertneky

Oklahoma legislators hope to finally have a solution to the Oklahoma REAL ID issue soon.

With less than a month before military bases and federal buildings were to stop accepting Oklahoma IDs for entry, the Department of Homeland Security issued a last minute reprieve, giving the Legislature until June to come up with a plan to become compliant.

In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security asking for the extension, Gov. Mary Fallin, the state House speaker and state Senate president said they are “committed to a quick resolution of the issue.”

“I think Oklahoma, it’s almost a fluke in it’s ability to extract a temporarily victory in what looked like certain defeat,” said Brian Zimmer.

Zimmer, the president of the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Keeping Identities Safe, said several states asked for extensions and didn't get them. He said typically those letters are followed up with direct contact.

“I give credit to the persistence of your governor that she must have really stayed after them persuasively,” Zimmer said.

“We believe it can be taken care of this very first month of session,” said state Rep. Jon Echols (R).

Echols is part of group from the House, Senate and Governor's office that has been working on a plan to become compliant for the last six months.

“We don’t have a choice at this point. We have to come up with a compromise bill because the federal government had made it very clear. Whether you like it or not, we’re going to cause inconvenience to your citizens if you don’t come up with a plan for compliance,” he said.

Echols said the legislation would likely offer Oklahomans a choice between a REAL ID compliant license or one that's not.

Right now, the Department of Homeland Security is warning air travelers that an Oklahoma driver’s license will not be valid for TSA security after January 2018. Experts think if Oklahoma passes legislation to become compliant, DHS will extend that deadline.

If lawmakers once again can’t pass legislation to become complaint, Zimmer said it’s unlikely the Department of Homeland security would give them another chance.

“That would be bad. That would be very, very bad,” he said.