Rep. Jim Cooper

Guest columnist

U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, represents Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.

In 2005, Congress planted a time bomb that will explode in a little over a year and has the potential to cause chaos across the country.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Congress decided that everyone in America who wants to fly commercial or enter certain federal buildings or military bases must have a “REAL ID,” like a super driver’s license with a star on the upper right side, indicating that an additional level of screening has been completed and is uniform across the country. I voted for the law.

Unfortunately, Tennessee waited almost 14 years to implement it. Now, in 12 months, your old driver’s license will no longer be sufficient to board a plane. The deadline for everyone in every state is Oct. 1, 2020.

This is not an easy process

The only way to get a REAL ID in Tennessee is to show up in person at your nearest Department of Motor Vehicles branch — everyone’s favorite bureaucracy — with lots of paperwork so that you wait in a long, long line. It took me over four hours to get mine.

Imagine next year, when tens of thousands of Americans without a REAL ID discover that they cannot board a domestic flight or access certain federal buildings, all because Tennessee and other states were slow to implement the law. This is a recipe for disaster.

No constitutional rights are more fundamental than our right to travel and contact our government, yet there is only a weak national effort to notify citizens of this painful new burden on those rights. How can you get hundreds of thousands more people a day to go to DMVs without a massive publicity campaign? Without such a campaign, millions of Americans will be punished when they can’t fly or enter their own government’s buildings.

You will be able to board flights and enter certain federal facilities with a current passport, but only about 10% of Tennesseans have a passport. That’s why having a REAL ID is so important.

The chaos has already started

Here in Tennessee, the chaos has already started. In an Oct. 21 article in The Tennessean, Reporter Joel Ebert describes the worsening problems across the state, when a software failure left people stranded in long lines. And even on the best days, there are no extra DMV staff to shorten the lines. There is poor and confusing signage. There are computer kiosks that are not working or do not mention REAL ID.

Current computer software is not up-to-date. Some locations are unable to process payment, all but closing some DMV sites.

When I went to get my REAL ID, the clerk at first rejected my paperwork because I have a common name that the computer confused with people in other states. People are angry and frustrated. And who can blame them?

Here are the specifics

To get a REAL ID you must:

pay the fee for a new or duplicate driver’s license or ID, present an original or certified proof of U.S. citizenship or legal presence, and show proof of your Social Security number and proof of residence.

This usually means a U.S. passport, your birth certificate (which most people cannot find), your Social Security card (ditto) or most recent W-2 tax form, and two official documents like a utility bill with your address. If you don’t have these documents handy, or need to update them, you may have to pay additional fees.

A great concern is that opportunities for voter suppression abound. Although your old driver’s license is sufficient for voting, devious political operatives will say that you need a REAL ID to vote. They will threaten criminal penalties for anyone voting without a proper ID. This could hurt voter turnout. This could also make immigrant- and minority-bashing easier because anyone without REAL ID looks second-class. We don’t need more xenophobia and social inequality.

I encourage everyone not to procrastinate. Get your REAL ID as soon as possible. Let’s not risk chaotic scenes of angry passengers who failed security checks at airports and citizens who are unable to meet with agencies of their own government.

U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, represents Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.