Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs visited the Motor Vehicle Division on Thursday to get her Real ID, the new form of identification that will soon be required at airports across the country.
The Real ID Act requires that ID cards used at airports and certain federal facilities meet minimum security standards. Congress passed the law 20 years ago, but repeated delays have pushed back the deadline for Americans to obtain one.
“It’s a good time to remind Arizonans that the deadline’s coming up on May 7,” Hobbs said. “If you’re going to … fly domestically, you have to have a Real ID compliant ID or you won’t get through TSA.”
Hobbs said residents can still use other federally compliant identification at airports, such as a passport.
Hobbs visited an MVD office in the West Valley to get her Real ID just days before the May 7 deadline.
“Well, there’s nothing like a deadline to spur people to action,” she said.
According to the Transportation Security Administration, 81% of travellers at airports were presenting federally compliant identification as of April 11. And, as of January, 2.35 million of the 7.6 million active IDs in Arizona were Real ID compliant.
Arizona officials initially refused to adopt Real ID when Congress first passed the law in 2005. Lawmakers at the time expressed concern that the new standards would essentially create a national ID card.
Hobbs said she has no such concerns.
“I don’t think there’s a reason to be skeptical about it,” she said. “I think there’s been a lot of conspiracies, not just recently, around elections, around vaccines, and Real ID was an old one. And people don’t have a reason to be skeptical of it.”
The Arizona Legislature didn’t authorize Real IDs until 2015, and all states did not become compliant until 2020.
Arizona residents can obtain a Real ID at MVD offices for $25. Information about appointments and required documents are available on the Department of Transportation’s website.
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David Zipper is a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative and a contributing writer at Vox. He argues the increase in autonomous vehicles could bring "the most tumultuous shift in transportation since cars first rumbled their way into the scene."
