Driver's licenses from four additional states will no longer be accepted as official forms of identification for gaining access to military bases DoD-wide starting Jan. 30, officials said.
Those holding non-enhanced drivers' licenses issued by Kentucky, Maine, Montana and Pennsylvania will join those from Washington, Minnesota and Missouri in no longer being able to enter federal facilities using their state IDs as their primary form of identification, Defense Department officials confirmed.
Those state IDs don't comply with official standards under the 2005 Real ID Act, which requires states to meet minimum security requirements for state-issued ID cards such as driver's licenses, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Some non-compliant states, including Alaska, Oklahoma and South Carolina have received deadline extensions from DHS, while the four set to be blocked Jan. 30, as well as the three already on the list, have not.
DoD officials said that while Homeland Security officials have issued a list of other acceptable forms of identification, including U.S. passports, Veterans Health ID cards and Native American tribal ID cards, installation commanders are free to develop their own lists of supplemental forms of ID.
For example, officials at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, plan to accept birth certificates, utility bills and vehicle registrations as supporting ID documents, while officials at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, accept Social Security cards but not utility bills or vehicle registrations.
Some base officials, including those at Fort Huachuca, previously had announced that they would start enforcing the new ID requirements Jan. 10. But that statement was based on outdated information, a DoD official said. An original compliance deadline of Jan. 10 was pushed to Jan. 30 because of the upcoming presidential inauguration, the official said.
"Each of the services issued notices down their chains informing them of the new date, but we have found that word hasn't made it some bases," said Navy Cmdr. Linda K. Rojas, a DoD spokesperson. "As they pop up, we are correcting them."
This story was updated Jan. 17 to reflect a change to the list of states with unacceptable IDs. South Carolina has been granted an extension since the time of original publication.
-- Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com.
![Members of Bashar Assad's army line up to register with Syrian rebels in Damascus, Syria.](http://images04.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_large/public/2024-12/ApNewsroom_Syria_93981.jpg?itok=KtmjProB "Members of Bashar Assad's army, or a pro-government militia, line up to register with Syrian rebels as part of an "identification and reconciliation process" in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)")
![A Danish soldier onboard the Danish warship Esbern Snare.](http://images05.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_large/public/2024-12/ApNewsroom_Cyprus_Syria_83465.jpg?itok=FpC0C1Xo "FILE - A Danish soldier onboard the Danish warship "Esbern Snare" as the Danish cargo ship Ark Futura, background, transports Syria's dangerous chemical weapons out of the strife-torn country, out of Cyprus coastal city of Larnaca, on Tuesday, May 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)")
