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Panel hears how Real ID compliance bills differ

Rep. Dennis Smith, left, and Sen. Eric Pratt, co-chairs of the conference committee on HF3, the Real ID implementation bill, listen to a question from Sen. Ann Rest, right foreground, at their first meeting April 18. Photo by Paul Battaglia
Rep. Dennis Smith, left, and Sen. Eric Pratt, co-chairs of the conference committee on HF3, the Real ID implementation bill, listen to a question from Sen. Ann Rest, right foreground, at their first meeting April 18. Photo by Paul Battaglia

How Minnesota might comply with the federal Real ID law — an issue that has dogged the Legislature for a decade — began getting hashed out in a House-Senate conference committee Tuesday.

The HF3*/SF166 conference committee met for about an hour to compare the two bodies’ approaches to implementing compliance with the Real ID Act of 2005, a federal law guiding states to issue driver’s licenses and other IDs that meet certain improved data and security standards.

With a 2018 deadline looming after which current Minnesota IDs won’t be accepted for commercial air travel, many lawmakers feel an urgency to roll back a statute prohibiting Real ID compliance that was enacted in 2009 out of concerns about data privacy and federal overreach. A 2015 law let state agencies study how Minnesota might comply, but kept the ban on implementation intact.

Bills that would have blocked compliance first passed the Legislature in 2007 but were vetoed until one became law in 2009 with near-unanimous support.

This year, the House passed its version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Smith (R-Maple Grove), 72-58 on Feb. 23. The Senate version, sponsored by Sen. Eric Pratt (R-Prior Lake), passed 60-7 on March 30.

Nonpartisan House and Senate staff summarized about a dozen areas where there are differences between the House and Senate bills, and offered analysis of the potential fiscal impact.

Both versions envision a system in which the state would issue three types of driver’s licenses and other identification cards: IDs that comply with Real ID law, as well as regular and so-called “enhanced” IDs that do not comply with Real ID law.

WATCH Full video from Tuesday's meeting on YouTube

Among the major differences is whether a current rule against issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented residents should be put into law. The House says yes, but in the Senate version such a ban would apply only to Real ID-compliant identification. 

Both bills address data related to firearms. The House would prohibit the sharing of any firearms data on individuals. That prohibition in the Senate version applies only to sharing data with the federal government. The Senate would, however, classify firearms data as private.

The bills offer different approaches for Minnesotans whose licenses are issued before the state starts issuing Real ID-compliant licenses but expire after full federal compliance starts. The House would waive the fee for replacing licenses with IDs that comply with Real ID until a year after federal compliance starts. The Senate would extend the next renewal date by two years for applicants who replace their non-compliant IDs early.

Then there is the issue of how to pay for the changes. The Senate would appropriate $3.3 million from the driver services operating account in the special revenue fund for implementing a new process to conform to Real ID. It would be a one-time appropriation. The House version doesn’t appropriate funds, so the department would have to shift money from other areas.

The two bills have several other differences. The Senate version would:

  • prohibit the Department of Public Safety from acceding to changes the federal government makes to Real ID rules;
  • require the department to provide ID applicants with more information about the sharing of personal data outside of Minnesota;
  • allow applicants to use a document issued by a federal agency as proof of lawful status;
  • permit applications for any type of ID at any driver’s license agent; and
  • repeal the state law complying with Real ID if the federal government changes Real ID’s “official purpose.”  

The next step for the conference committee is to work through provisions which are the same or similar in the two bills. 


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