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Oregon Moves One Step Closer To Real ID Compliance

File photo. Regular driver's licenses from Oregon and Washington will be valid for boarding flights until at least January 2018.
Department of Homeland Security
File photo. Regular driver's licenses from Oregon and Washington will be valid for boarding flights until at least January 2018.

Oregon is one step closer to complying with a 12-year-old federal law that governs the security of drivers' licenses. The Oregon Senate approved a bill Monday that would allow the Oregon DMV to issue licenses that meet federal approval.

Republican Bill Hansell said the state would offer two kinds of IDs.

"One being the standard cards that are available today,” he said. “The other being Real ID compliant cards which individuals could use to board a commercial aircraft and access other federal facilities."

The Real ID compliant cards would come with an extra fee, which hasn't been determined.

Without the bill, Oregonians wouldn't be able to use their state ID cards to board flights as soon as next January.

The measure now heads to the Oregon House.

Copyright 2017 Northwest News Network

Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.