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Pennsylvanians hoping to board commercial flights in 2018 could shell out hundreds of millions of dollars on passports if the state continues to shirk federal identification requirements, according to an aviation trade group.
Starting in January, Transportation Security Agency officials are scheduled to stop accepting Pennsylvania driver's licenses as acceptable identification for boarding airplanes. The looming deadline results from the state's non-compliance with the REAL ID Act, which Congress passed in 2005 to establish minimum security standards for state-issued driver's licenses and identification cards.
State officials this year pledged to solve the ID compliance problems. The Aviation Council of Pennsylvania on Thursday said failure to do so could see millions of Pennsylvanians spend as much as $966 million obtaining passports if they want to fly.
“Most of us rely on driver's licenses to serve as our main form of identification,” Debra Bowman, the council's executive director said in a statement. “Not being able to use them when we fly is going to be extremely problematic.”
In 2012, Pennsylvania lawmakers passed a law that prohibited participation in the REAL ID program, citing among other concerns an estimated $140 million cost to come into compliance, which some officials characterized as an unfunded federal mandate.
Homeland Security officials in October said Pennsylvania IDs failed to meet several REAL ID requirements.
DHS originally gave the state until Jan. 30 to fix the issues or federal agencies would begin rejecting Pennsylvania driver's licenses as official forms of identification for entering military bases, nuclear power plants and other federal facilities, with a commercial air travel prohibition set to follow in 2018.
In January, DHS extended the first deadline after Gov. Tom Wolf and bipartisan lawmakers pledged to resolve the problems during the current legislative session.
State officials then did not have an estimate for the cost of moving into compliance. Wolf's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Aviation Council, in conjunction with Washington D.C.-based secure license advocacy group Keeping IDentities Safe, estimated 2.4 million to 5.8 million Pennsylvania residents who travel once per year will need to acquire passports if the state fails REAL ID compliance. The cost would range between $408 million and $966 million in 2018, the groups said.
First-time passport applicants older than 16 pay $110, plus a $25 “execution fee,” according to the U.S. Department of State.
Michael Walton is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-380-5627 or mwalton@tribweb.com.
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