Congress should block Real ID ultimatum

THE ISSUE The secretary of homeland security is giving states until May to accept a driver's license program or face obstacles to air travel.

HAWAII residents without passports and unwilling to go through severe airport screening could be stranded on their islands in May if a tactic by the Department of Homeland Security fails to coerce the state into accepting new rules for driver's licenses. Congress needs to act quickly to force the administration to back away from such a threat.

In announcing plans for the nationwide Real ID licenses, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, said any state must seek a waiver by May indicating they want more time to comply with the rules. Residents of any state that refuses to do so, he said, will have to use a passport or certain types of border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening by airport security.

Hawaii is among 17 states that have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to the Real ID Act's provisions. Mayor Mufi Hannemann is mainly concerned with the cost of compliance, while skeptical Sen. Daniel Akaka said the card "could provide one-stop shopping for identity thieves."

Chertoff said last March that the conversion of driver's licenses would cost $14.6 billion, but he says the changes will reduce it to less than $4 billion. That is unlikely to reduce the opposition in Hawaii and elsewhere.

The changes would require license applicants born after Dec. 1, 1964, to submit a digital photograph, a birth certificate or similar proof of identity. Other changes would take effect in 2014 and drivers older than 50 would have until 2018 to meet the requirements. State officials have until May to decide whether to call what might be Chertoff's bluff.