Overview
- The proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on Nov. 20, starts a comment period with rollout timing to be announced when TSA opens registration on TSA.gov.
- Travelers without an acceptable ID could opt to pay a non-refundable $18 fee for a modernized alternative identity verification valid for 10 days, with payments possibly collected by third parties.
- The program would verify identity using biographic data and biometric scans at kiosks and would include matching to Secure Flight watchlist results.
- Paying the fee would not guarantee identity verification or access to the checkpoint, and participants could face additional screening or delays with no refunds if verification fails.
- TSA says the fee is intended to recover costs and expand capacity compared with the current manual process, following REAL ID enforcement that began in May with compliance reported near 94%.