Congress receives DHS Real ID request

The Homeland Security Department released its plan to push forward new nationally standardized drivers' licenses.

Requested by the Senate and House Appropriations Committees, the plan includes a staffing configuration for the Real ID Program Office and goals to focus on in the next year. These goals include monitoring state implementation, issuing guidelines, helping states implement card standards, overseeing grants to the states and proposing alternative implementation solutions in an effort to ease states' transition to the new cards.

"The program office is reviewing alternative card technologies, state-to-state and state-to-federal government information systems solutions and states' re-enrollment processes," according to the plan.

DHS needed to issue a plan to the committees to make available a discretionary grant of $34 million to states for the Real ID deployment.

The Real ID Act of 2005 requires states to issue nationally standardized driver's licenses and identification cards. The price for implementing Real ID nationwide is about $14 billion.