AP Wire

Edwards signs REAL ID bill; new law offers option to drivers

by The Associated Press

Drivers have worried they will run into trouble boarding domestic flights without a REAL ID-compliant license. Conservatives had raised privacy worries about the data collection required for compliance.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's debate about the federal REAL ID security law appears to be over.

Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a new law Tuesday that will let Louisiana's drivers decide whether they want a license that complies with the federal law or one that does not.

That ends years of state haggling over the issue, doing away with a state ban on compliance enacted in 2008.

Karen St. Germain, commissioner of the Office of Motor Vehicles, hopes to have REAL ID licenses ready to go by Sept. 1.

Drivers have worried they will run into trouble boarding domestic flights in a few years without a REAL ID-compliant license. Conservative groups had raised privacy worries about the data collection required for compliance.

The new law offers a choice.