Update: Mark Dayton warns that failing to address Real ID would be ‘catastrophic’

Increasing the chances that Minnesotans could have problems boarding planes next year, the federal government refused to grant Minnesota an extension to improve its driver’s licenses.

The decision from the Department of Homeland Security, received Tuesday by Gov. Mark Dayton’s office, means Minnesota will be the only state in the nation that has driver’s licenses eschewed by the federal government and that lacks permission to work on the issue in the future.

“As a result, federal agencies may not accept Minnesota driver’s licenses and identification cards for official purposes,” Homeland Security assistant secretaries Alan Bersin and Philip McNamara wrote Dayton.

Sometime in 2016, going through security at airports will be listed among those official purposes. The exact date for that requirement is unclear — and the federal government has promised it will give states at least 120 days’ advance notice. Most states already issue Real ID-compliant licenses.

Last month, Dayton asked the federal government to extend the Real ID deadline for Minnesota with his personal commitment that he would work, “to find a solution to allow Minnesotans to board aircraft in compliance with Real ID.”

That commitment was not enough for the Department of Homeland Security. According to the letter from the federal government, Minnesota “had not provided adequate justification for continued noncompliance with Real ID standards.”

State Sen. Susan Kent, a Woodbury DFLer and chair of the Legislative Commission on Data Practices, said that’s no surprise. Most states that have been granted extensions have already completed some actions to approve Real ID. Minnesota has not.

“In my view, this is just a really timely reminder that this is an issue we need to deal with, and sooner rather than later,” Kent said.

For months, Minnesota legislative leaders and the governor have agreed they want to help residents avoid having to obtain special identification, such as enhanced driver’s licenses or passports, to board planes.

The four-month heads-up the federal government has promised before implementing the new plane-boarding identification requirement may give Minnesota leaders enough time to cope. The Minnesota Legislature is due to meet next in regular session March 8.

“Minnesotans can confidently travel this holiday season without a Real ID requirement to board an airplane,” House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said. “The federal government has assured us they will provide at least 120 days’ notice to prepare for the next phase of Real ID, and we will continue to work with the governor to achieve compliance.”

Current law, approved in 2009, forbids Minnesota from adopting the Real ID standards most other states have long ago approved and the federal government requires. Those standards include extra verifications that the people receiving identification are who they say they are, and other security measures.

According to the federal government, Minnesota fails to meet a dozen of those requirements because, “state law or policy prohibits Minnesota” from meeting them.

The state law, passed during heightened worry about the federal government and privacy, not only bans Minnesota from adopting Real ID standards, it bars the state’s commissioner of public safety from taking any action to plan implementation.

That means the state has not been able to study the costs or procedures of implementation since May 2009. Dayton has called that an overreaction.

Lawmakers and the governor have said they hope to rescind that law so Minnesota can move forward. Democratic-Farmer-Laborers in the Senate have proposed dealing with the issue in a possible special legislative session before March but leaders have yet to agree on the need or agenda for a special session.

Lawmakers have discussed adopting a two-tiered Real ID policy when they do act, Kent and others said. That would allow Minnesotans to opt for a federally approved state license or the standard, non-compliant license.

Wisconsin adopted a similar policy in 2013. Less than a quarter of that state’s identification holders opted to get the Real ID-compliant identification.

Follow Rachel E. Stassen-Berger at twitter.com/rachelsb.