State commissioner: Prevent nightmare scenario of kids missing Disney by getting Real ID
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Minnesota driver’s licensing officials said Friday they’re concerned too many people will delay applying for security-enhanced ID cards that will get them through airport security come fall and urged them to get in line by June.
Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington told state lawmakers it’s taking months to process applications for the IDs. He shared the nightmare scenario in his head about those traditional school holiday getaways to Disney World in October.
“Mom, dad and grandma are at the airport getting ready to go down to the happiest place on the earth and they walk up and they don’t have Real ID,” Harrington told members of the Driver and Vehicle Systems Oversight Committee.
By October, Real ID will be one of the few forms of ID that transportation security agents will accept at checkpoints. Passports or passport cards are also valid. Harrington said the federal deadline appears to be set in stone.
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“And I don’t want to see the faces of crying children who can’t get on an airplane because mom and dad waited too long to get their Real ID,” he said.
The alarmist tone comes from the number Harrington and his team are watching: Only about 12 percent of Minnesota license holders have the new IDs. He said roughly 19,000 applications are coming in per week.
“We have 33 weeks between now and when Real ID comes into force. And 19,000 times 33 weeks doesn’t get me anywhere close to the other 48 percent of Minnesotans who don’t currently have a passport or a Real ID,” Harrington said. “So we still need to make a push on this.”
Those who apply are finding long waits.
“We are getting in more than we can process,” said Emma Corrie, the state's Driver and Vehicle Services director. She said more than 100,000 applications are pending in Minnesota for IDs — Real or Enhanced — that meet the new requirements. DVS is still processing some applications filed in December.
Corrie said the turnaround times might only grow as applications surge this summer. People who want to be guaranteed an ID by October should have their paperwork in by June 1, she said.
On top of that, it's been taking more than one try for many applicants to get their qualifying materials correct, she said.
“Right now we are assessing or assuming that 15 percent of our people go back, at least for a second trip,” Corrie said.
An unexpired passport, birth certificate, Social Security card and recent proof of Minnesota residence are among the items people are allowed to present.
Corrie said lawmakers could help by addressing some barriers Minnesota ID applicants face. She said Minnesota’s rules around utility bills, canceled checks and pay stubs as identifying documents are more rigid than federal requirements and could be eased some.
Most of all, she urged people to know what’s needed or fill out an application online before they come in.
“Pre-apply, pre-apply, pre-apply. Because that will also give them the heads-up of whether they are missing a document,” she said.
Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, said lawmakers should consider stepping in to avoid chaos.
“If there is a role for the Legislature and it sounds like there may be, we would need to move very quickly,” he said.
State Sen. John Jasinski, R-Faribault, said he’s not sure what the appetite is for last-minute law changes among his colleagues.
“There’s a lot of people that have to meet the deadline who don’t really need to meet the deadline because they don’t travel that much or something like that,” he said. “There are a lot of people who might not travel for three or four years.”
But people waiting too long could only extend lag times if licensing agents get swarmed with applications.
Corrie said her agents are putting in voluntary overtime, but she says there's more workload coming that could lead to a “perfect storm.” Summer is the busiest time for road tests, and the agency is working to launch a new vehicle licensing system in November.
“I absolutely cannot take my vehicle people and deploy them like I am right now for Real ID,” she said.
Harrington assured lawmakers that his agency won't let up. But he said it's incumbent on Minnesotans to also step up to avoid his nightmare — that family-trip-to-Disney disaster — from becoming a reality.