Governor Fallin and the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety (DPS) announced they have been notified that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has granted the state’s REAL ID extension through Oct. 10, 2019.
This means the federal government will continue to recognize Oklahoma driver’s licenses and ID cards until that time.
“This is great news for Oklahomans, and means there will be no restrictions on individuals using Oklahoma licenses to fly or access federal buildings through October 10 of next year,” said Fallin. “Oklahoma is actively working towards full compliance.”
Public Safety Commissioner Rusty Rhoades said: “There have been many questions recently about Oklahoma’s status regarding REAL ID. DPS is actively working towards making Oklahoma REAL ID compliant and will use this time to gain compliance.”
Congress passed the REAL ID Act in 2005 to make driver’s licenses harder to forge. Oklahoma legislators in 2007 passed a bill forbidding the state from meeting provisions of the act.
Lawmakers in 2017 passed legislation that was signed by the governor, which allowed state officials to begin work on building a compliant system. That includes training tag agents and creating a centralized office to handle card manufacturing and storage.
There are 43 total requirements that must be met by states to be in full compliance. Oklahoma currently is in full compliance with 30 of those requirements, partial compliance with 12, and only one non-compliant. The one non-compliant is the final certification letter that the state can’t complete until it has the system in place to issue the documents.
