gets more time to comply with Real ID law

residents in order for their driver licenses to be valid for federal purposes, Gov. Tom Wolf administration said Thursday.

The extension for compliance with the Real ID law means that, for now, Pennsylvania licenses will be sufficient proof of identification to get into federal facilities.

Real ID provisions require certain identification standards in order to enter federal facilities such as military bases and nuclear plants, but next year more widespread problems loom, as the heightened standards will be required for people boarding commercial airliners.

Wolf, a Democrat, issued a statement thanking legislative leaders making this commitment to fix state law to allow for us to come into compliance so that no Pennsylvanians, fake ids from delivery drivers to air travelers, will be inconvenienced by the current provisions barring PennDOT from completing certain requirements. federal law was enacted as a result of the Sept. 11 terror attacks carried out by hijackers who had obtained valid ID from various states. The federal ID standards were designed to help prevent terrorism and fraud.

A 2012 state law, the Real ID Nonparticipation Act, is keeping Pennsylvania from meeting the federal law requirements. It passed the state Senate unanimously and the House by a wide margin. Concerns with the act included cost, constitutionality questions and government intrusiveness. Department of Homeland Security to a PennDOT executive said the state driver licenses fell short on several grounds, Scannable Fake IDs including that they lacked a federally approved security marking. Other issues were that Pennsylvania does not necessarily require people to renew in person when there are material changes in personally identifiable information and it doesn bar people from having more than one Real ID compliant identification.

Republican majority leaders in the House and Senate said they were committed to working on the state Real ID law.

House Speaker Mike Turzai, R Bradford Woods, and Majority Leader Dave Reed, R White Township, issued a statement saying many legislators have concerns about the federal law, but they aimed to compliance in a reasonable and cost effective manner. Wolf aide said the governor spoke twice recently with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to pursue the time extension. A letter to Wolf dated Wednesday from two Homeland Security officials said the limited extension was based, in part, Scannable Fake IDs on their understanding that a legislative fix was expected to be passed this year.