Now the Transportation Security Administrationis planning to overhaul that screening process and wants to charge passengers $18 to use it.
The timing of the new process and fee are uncertain. The TSA filed a notice that it intends to charge the fee last week but did not specify when.
The agency issued a statement saying the notice was the next step in enacting REAL ID requirements approved by Congress more than 20 years ago.
“TSA is working with stakeholders and partners to ensure both security and efficiency at our checkpoints,” the statement says. “Additional guidance will be announced in the coming days.”
The REAL ID Act was a response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The goal is to make it easier to verify the identity of a person holding a state-issued driver’s license or ID card by requiring additional documentation when those cards are issued. A REAL ID license has a star in the upper right-hand corner.
Getting a REAL ID is optional. About 43% of the nearly 8.7 million North Carolina residents with a state driver’s license or ID card have chosen not to get one, according to the state Division of Motor Vehicles.
Last May, the federal government began requiring a REAL ID or an approved alternative, such as a passport, to board domestic flights or visit certain federal offices and facilities. About 91.5% of people who arrive at TSA checkpoints at North Carolina airports have a REAL ID or other credential that meets federal standards.
For those who don’t, the TSA takes extra steps to verify their identity before allowing them into the airport. The most common way involves a TSA call center called the National Transportation Vetting Center.
Now the agency plans to replace the call center with “an automated, technology-supported service,” according to the notice filed last week. The notice doesn’t provide details but says the agency will use a person’s “biographic and/or biometric information to verify identity” and confirm they’re not on any watch lists. The proposed $18 fee would cover the cost of developing and maintaining the service, the TSA says.
“Requiring a fee for the modernized alternative identity verification program will ensure that the cost to administer this program is recovered from the users who benefit from it,” the agency wrote.
The TSA will collect the fee when a traveler “registers and requests alternative identity verification.” That verification will be good for 10 days, after which another fee would be required. Travelers who are denied access to the airport for any reason would not get their $18 back.
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