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HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Houston Mayor John Whitmire on Tuesday kept his promise to balance the city’s finances, unveiling a $7 billion budget with no tax increase or new fees for city residents. The city was facing a budget deficit of more than $330 million during Whitmire’s time in office. Whitmire credited department consolidations for eliminating part of the deficit. The city also saved money in a legal agreement that requires the city to invest millions more in streets and drainage — but not all at once. The budget proposal does not factor in potential state money as lawmakers convene in Austin for their legislative session. One contentious bill would give Houston millions more from the Harris County Toll Road Authority.

While the city used METRO dollars to help offset costs incurred as a result of a drainage lawsuit that led to the legal agreement, the city is not using any more METRO dollars to bolster the budget, nor did it get any additional revenue from Harris County, Whitmire’s staff said. “This day is one of the reasons I ran for mayor,” Whitmire said. Whitmire’s 2026 budget is $7 billion, which is 2.3% more than last year’s budget. While the city plans to operate with more money this coming fiscal year, around $74.5 million was cut from the city’s nearly $3 billion general fund, which is bolstered by property and sales taxes. The general fund cuts came from consolidations and Whitmire’s voluntary retirement plan, which was open to all retirement-eligible employees except for police and fire. Whitmire’s team estimated the city would save around $30 million from retirements alone.

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News reports that amid President Donald Trump’s chaotic trade war, this much is certain: Business is being put on hold. The question, business leaders say as they scrap profit forecasts for the rest of the year, is how deep a hole they’re sliding into. From San Antonio’s Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. and Rush Enterprises Inc. to Tesla Inc. and Southwest Airlines, executives say there are just too many uncertainties to give investors much guidance. Though the next two or three months promise more of the same, most are hesitant to say what they anticipate beyond that.

“The runway is really short,” Rush Enterprises CEO Rusty Rush said during a recent call with investors. “There’s a lot of haze, a lot of fog … And that’s not just for me, that’s for our customers. I mean, we’re driven by what customers see, what they do, what affects them.” Right now, he said, customers aren’t buying new heavy trucks — the New Braunfels-based commercial vehicle dealer’s bread and butter. Companies aren’t growing or replacing their fleets, Rush said, just replacing vehicles as they break down. That’s happening less often as drivers are putting fewer miles on their rigs as business slows. As imports continue to drop, truckers also have less merchandise and other freight to pick up from ports to drop off at stores, distributors and manufacturers. The uncertainty is being seen this week on Wall Street, too. After breaking a nine-day winning streak Monday, its longest such run in more than 20 years, the S&P 500 fell another 0.8% Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9% and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.9%.

AUSTIN – Fentanyl test strips are among the cheapest and easiest ways to prevent overdoses, but multiple attempts to legalize them — even with Gov. Greg Abbott’s support in the past — have failed in the Senate. This year, legislation to legalize these test strips faces similar challenges.

“I think that there’s a different stream of thought that feels like if you give an inch, you give a mile, and that any sort of lessening of prohibition stance is sort of giving up and giving over to drug use,” said Katharine Neill Harris, a drug policy fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

House Bill 1644, by state Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, would remove testing strips for fentanyl and xylazine, a veterinary sedative also known as “tranq,” from the list of banned drug paraphernalia. This bill passed unanimously in the House last month and is now pending in the Senate.

Fentanyl, a potent drug commonly mixed with other substances and has caused the deaths of more than 7,000 Texans in the last six years, is odorless and tasteless, making detection nearly impossible without specialized equipment.

This is why Oliverson called fentanyl testing strips a “mine detector” for a person trying to walk across a minefield.

The cost of fentanyl test strips can range from $10 to $30 for a box of 30. To use the strips, testers dissolve a small amount of a drug in water and then dip the strip into it. One line indicates fentanyl is present, and two lines indicate a negative result.

This is the second legislative session in a row that Oliverson has tried to get his bill passed. Both times, his legislation didn’t get a committee hearing in the Senate. With less than four weeks left in the legislative session, his bill this session hasn’t yet been considered in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

Oliverson, in his speech from the House floor, suggested that Senate lawmakers fear that legalizing the strips would mean that people would start “using drugs to their heart’s content safely.”

“I want every person in Texas who is struggling with addiction to get the help they need. But I can’t fix that if they are dead,” Oliverson told lawmakers last month when his bill passed.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, did not return a request for comment nor did the criminal justice committee chair, Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton. Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, credited by drug policy advocates last legislative session for blocking fentanyl testing strips from a hearing, didn’t comment on whether she supports legalization.

“The structural nature of the Senate, where the lieutenant governor has the power to decide whether a bill gets a hearing or not, can be quite a big hurdle,” Harris said.

Travis County Judge Andy Brown said the delay in legalizing fentanyl testing strips is only costing lives with each passing year.

“Our fight against the number one cause of accidental death in Travis County is hampered by the fact that we haven’t legalized fentanyl test strips in Texas,” Brown said.

Early last year, a rash of over 70 overdoses rocked Travis County in a span of three days, killing more than nine people. However, more deaths could have occurred if the county and the state hadn’t made efforts to get overdose reversal drugs like Narcan and naloxone to the general public last legislative session.

To combat the growing number of fentanyl overdose deaths in Texas, state lawmakers in 2023 launched a $10 million fentanyl awareness campaign and plan to distribute doses of Narcan to every county in the state.

“I also get the sense that publicity campaigns that we have done and that the state has done have helped get the education out there, too,” Brown said.

Brown said Travis County, despite the harrowing encounter last year, saw a decline in fentanyl related deaths, dropping by 36%, from 279 in 2023 to 179 in 2024.

During this same period, deaths from fentanyl overdose statewide dropped 14%, to 5,070 in 2024.

“We don’t know yet if this is a long-term decline. Certainly, it’s an encouraging development that we hope to see continue,” Harris said, pointing out that 87,000 deaths are still a lot.

A dip doesn’t mean a complete decline as the drug market is unpredictable. This is why drug policy advocates and others are clamoring for the legalization of drug testing strips, which are cheaper to stock than Narcan and can keep someone from using fentanyl in the first place.

In December 2022, Abbott announced his support for fentanyl testing strips as he believed the opioid crisis had gone too far. Attempts to contact Abbott to see if he still supports testing strips were not returned. Abbott did not respond to a request for comment on whether he still supports legalization.

“I think we would reduce the number of deaths that we’re seeing in the state of Texas if we just made test strips legal,” Brown said.

Maggie Luna, executive director of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, an Austin-based nonprofit that does outreach and operates a drop-in center for people who might need Narcan, condoms, bandages, and more, has seen firsthand the demand for fentanyl testing strips.

Their organization can’t legally buy testing strips but accepts tests donated to them from other states.

“People are always asking for fentanyl testing strips and xylazine test strips,” Luna said.

The Texas Harm Reduction Alliance has been on the front-lines of this fight against drug-related deaths, reversing more than 300 overdoses in 2024 alone with Narcan, Luna said.

If fentanyl use continues, Luna is concerned about it worsening because of federal funding cuts to substance abuse programs, Texas lawmakers’ attempt to ban intoxicating substances like hemp and kratom, and the economic downturn, which notoriously leads to spikes in drug usage.

“We are going to start seeing people seeking drugs at the same time we are clawing back the money that we have for tools to keep people alive,” Luna said. “We are heading to a period of death.”

Luna said legalizing test strips allows organizations like hers, which face an uncertain future, a cheap option to save lives.

“Every overdose can be reversed if we are applying the right education and giving out the correct tools,” Luna said.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

NEW YORK (AP) — Police in New York City are investigating whether the department violated policy by sharing a report with federal immigration authorities that included a record of a Palestinian woman’s sealed arrest. The report was generated by the NYPD in response to a federal request for information about Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman living in New Jersey. While federal authorities said they were investigating Kordia for criminal money laundering, the record is now being used as evidence in civil deportation case. The city’s police commissioner said an internal investigation into the information-sharing was underway. Kordia remains in a Texas immigration jail.

ODESSA — Texas will need a lot more energy in the future.

Driven largely by demand from businesses such as data centers and the oil and gas industry, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, predicts the state’s energy needs will nearly double in six years.

State Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, worries ERCOT is not working with a full picture.

He told a legislative panel as much in February.

“We do not have accurate load forecasting. No one knows if the forecast is real,” he said. Large companies, he added, are requiring ERCOT to plan “for load growth at dramatically higher levels than experienced ever in the history of Texas, and frankly, ever in the history of the United States.”

And “without credible data, we run the risk of overbuilding, with high costs being passed on to consumers, or underbuilding, further exacerbating scarcity,” he said.

He believes his legislation, Senate Bill 6, will put restraints on the state’s open-energy market, and help the grid plan for the future to save rate payers money and avoid another catastrophe when extreme weather strikes again.

The bill, which has already won Senate approval and is expected to start its journey in the Texas House Wednesday with a committee hearing, would place more requirements on businesses meant to help ERCOT better forecast the electricity needs. Businesses would also have to pay more in advance of operating.

While business groups have said they agree the grid needs more security, they believe King’s bill is too heavy-handed. They said some of his proposals won’t help ERCOT’s planning and put their operations at risk.

They want changes to the bill, such as removing language that would grant ERCOT the ability to disconnect power to major energy users during an emergency, and new rules on arrangements between power generators and companies.

Michael Jewell, an attorney who has represented large industrial companies on energy issues and policy, said King’s legislation will need to strike a balance between addressing the growth without scaring companies away.

“This legislation is important to finding that balance, that we can bring these large loads into the ERCOT region, grow the Texas economy, and support the development of this technology,” he said. “But we also want to be sure that we, as Texans, will continue to have reliable electricity.”

King’s bill only applies to industrial-sized facilities, or those needing more than 75 Megawatts.

Under the bill, businesses wanting to plug into the grid must disclose whether they have similar requests elsewhere in Texas or out of state. Companies must tell ERCOT if their backup generators can meet at least 50% of their power. During an emergency, ERCOT could instruct facilities to use that power, instead of the grid. Another provision allows ERCOT to shut off a facility’s power in an emergency. ERCOT must give the facilities a day’s notice.

Facilities sometimes negotiate directly with power generators, like gas-fired plants, to satisfy their electricity needs without connecting to the grid. The bill gives the Public Utility Commission, which regulates electricity and some water and wastewater, authority over such arrangements, allowing it to approve or reject them, in addition to 180 days of review.

Companies would also have to pay an electric, municipal utility or a cooperative at least $100,000 to study the transmission work necessary to transport electricity to their facilities. Companies must also demonstrate that they can afford to contribute to the construction of transmission lines and purchase any equipment or services.

The bill also directs the utility commission to determine how to better allocate transmission costs, including looking at peak demand, the point at which supply meets demand.

King acknowledged the strain on the state’s power grid means more businesses are moving to Texas, something he supports.

“I want to make it very clear that while this load growth is a strain on the ERCOT grid, it is also an excellent opportunity for the state of Texas,” King said in February. “So long as we manage it properly (and) not create reliability risks or pricing issues for everyday Texans.”

Groups consisting of the facilities King is targeting said parts of his proposals won’t benefit ERCOT’s efforts to make the grid reliable or lower prices.

Dan Diorio, a government affairs expert for the Data Center Coalition, a national group, said it is supportive of the goals the bill is trying to reach. But in its current form, the group said it has lingering concerns as the bill moves through the House, including a provision requiring companies to disclose information that he said is unnecessary for the grid, such as out-of-state requests for electricity. He said ERCOT can separate serious requests within Texas.

“This is a highly competitive industry,” he said. “So not only do we have competitive concerns about that, because this is proprietary information, but how is that going to inform the forecast correctly?”

He said diesel makes up most backup power generation, and is a fuel overseen by the federal government and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Forcing companies to run emergency generators could lead to air emissions violations and air pollution, Diorio said.

Diorio added that the information data centers collect and maintain — including from local and state authorities — could be put at risk when the system shuts down. Proposing to shut off power, even with a notice, could risk public safety, adding that the bill does not offer enough specificity regarding how the shut-off would be implemented.

Walt Baum, president of Powering Texans, a group representing natural gas power generators, said the bill imposes administrative requirements on agreements between power companies and facilities.

In this case, the company would pay the power generator directly for the needed electricity. Baum said a company could otherwise go directly to the grid, drawing out the same amount of electricity it would have gotten from the generator directly. The amount of energy used would not change.

“And the impact on the grid is the same,” he said.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

AUSTIN – After struggling for years to gain enough bipartisan support to tighten the state’s bail laws, Texas Republicans appear closer than ever to achieving their elusive goal of amending the state Constitution to keep more defendants behind bars pretrial.

GOP leaders see the issue as a matter of life and death, arguing that stricter bail laws are needed to curb violent crime tied to defendants who are out on bond. Critics, led by civil rights groups and progressive Democrats, view the bail crackdown as an infringement of the civil liberties of defendants who are legally presumed innocent and an unfunded mandate to counties who could see their jail populations soar.

The push to stiffen Texas’ bail laws has been largely spearheaded by Gov. Greg Abbott, who has named the issue an emergency item for three straight sessions. But the effort has repeatedly stalled in the House, thwarted by Democrats who have killed GOP bail measures by running out the clock or denying the two-thirds support needed from both chambers to put a constitutional amendment before voters.

Fresh off a victory on school vouchers — his other top priority — Abbott has zeroed in on the bail measure, which he recently painted as one of the most important pieces of legislation this session.

“There are thousands of bills that are working their way through the Legislature,” Abbott said in Houston last week. “None of them have the deadly consequences as much as this legislation — to amend the Constitution to keep these deadly, dangerous, violent criminals off the streets.”

Lawmakers this session are actively negotiating a package that could win support from all 88 House Republicans and at least 12 Democrats, the minimum threshold to reach two-thirds of the 150-member House.

The measure is set to mirror past proposals that would have given judges the option to deny bail in a wider array of violent offenses. But the House’s lead negotiator said that for some cases, the measure could go even further by requiring judges to withhold bail, rather than giving them discretion to do so.

Under the state Constitution, defendants — who are legally presumed innocent — are largely guaranteed the right to pretrial release, except in limited circumstances, such as when charged with capital murder.

Automatically denying bail is a new proposal that has not appeared in any legislative drafts this session. It was a recent demand of Abbott’s, who abruptly called for the more far-reaching standard during his Houston stop last week.

Even with the stiffer policy on the table, lead negotiators on bail from both chambers expressed optimism about reaching an agreement that could win enough support to clear the House.

“We’re close to an agreement,” Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo and chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, said in an interview Tuesday, adding that he was hopeful the package would move through his panel this week with less than a month of session left. “We’ve made a lot of progress. We’ve narrowed a lot of the issues down.”

Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston and the longtime sponsor of bail-related legislation in the upper chamber, said in a statement Monday that she was “optimistic” one of the measures would “soon advance to the House floor for a record vote.” Huffman’s bail amendments have routinely breezed through the Senate with bipartisan support, most recently passing the chamber on a 28-2 vote earlier this year.

At least some House Democrats are cautiously on board, though the situation remained fluid as of Tuesday afternoon without a compromise proposal for lawmakers to scour. Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told The Texas Tribune Tuesday that he anticipated reaching a “reasonable” agreement lacking the “most extreme” proposals.

“It’s something our communities have been asking for for a while,” Wu said. “I’m expecting an agreement that probably the bulk of the body will vote for.”

The proposal’s momentum in the House this session reflects a yearslong shift in Texas away from efforts to curtail mass incarceration, reduce wealth-based detention and keep nonviolent offenders out of jail. Instead, under Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, state leaders have swerved toward a tough-on-crime approach to legislating, including through bills that would likely grow the state’s incarcerated population, increase penalties for various crimes and exempt police from deadly conduct charges. And while they have failed to amend the Constitution’s bail provisions, GOP lawmakers have approved more modest changes restricting access to cashless personal bonds, needing only majority support to send the legislation to Abbott’s desk.

As recently as 2021, a constitutional amendment tightening the state’s bail laws — similar to this session’s measure — won the requisite 100 votes in the House, but died as a casualty of a Democratic walkout over a voting bill.

“There’s some added pressure on the Democrats to get it done, just simply because this is a really big problem, and it’s a bipartisan issue,” said Nikki Pressley, Texas state director of Right on Crime at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “People feel unsafe, and we’re seeing stories all the time, over and over, of people getting out on bond and then seriously hurting someone.”

When the bail provisions died in 2021, Abbott called a special session. This time, Patrick has said he would force a special session if the Legislature failed to agree on bail measures.

“If these bills do not pass the House, I see no reason for us not to go to a special session and another special session and another special session,” Patrick said in February and again in March. “We will not leave here until these bills pass the House, period. If it takes two years, we’ll keep coming back.”

It is unclear whether Abbott’s proposal to require pretrial detention in some cases will make it into the final measure, though Huffman and Smithee both expressed support for it.

That proposal raised alarm among civil rights advocates, who called it an attack on liberty and the constitutional guarantee to due process. And it sparked accusations from Democrats that Abbott was moving the goalposts and looking to keep bail reform as a campaign issue ahead of the 2026 elections.

“Obviously, he doesn’t want us to solve the problem,” Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, said in an interview Tuesday, arguing that automatic denial of bail “completely supersedes” the judicial discretion needed in the courts. “He wants to make this a divisional issue between Republicans and Democrats, and so he’s demonizing my community around public safety.”

In pushing for the bail provisions, Abbott has called out several Harris County Democrats by name, highlighting violent crimes in their districts allegedly committed by people out on bond. Johnson, the former chief human trafficking prosecutor in Harris County, introduced her own legislation to expand the cases in which judges could deny bail, proposing a narrower set of offenses than the GOP legislation, with many of the same violent charges. Her proposal also sets deadlines for when judges must deny bail and would allow defendants to appeal such orders to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The amendment has not received a committee hearing.

An Abbott spokesperson reiterated that the governor was pushing to automatically deny bail in certain cases to rein in “activist judges” setting “weak bail.”

“Governor Abbott will work with the Legislature to require judges deny bail to criminals charged with capital murder and other heinous violent crimes,” Abbott press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement Tuesday. “Democrats must choose — support the safety of the citizens they represent, or the criminals who kill them.”

The Senate this session has approved four bills to keep criminal defendants accused of certain violent crimes behind bars while they await the resolution of their cases.

Bail is a legal mechanism used around the country to incentivize defendants who have not been convicted to appear at court hearings. Defendants can pay the full bail amount, which is refundable if they go to all their hearings, or they can pay a nonrefundable partial deposit to a bail bond company that fronts the full amount. Defendants who cannot afford to pay a deposit or their bail are often left detained for weeks or months.

The upper chamber’s main bail measure, Senate Joint Resolution 5, would amend the Texas Constitution to allow judges to deny bail under an expanded list of criminal charges, including murder, aggravated kidnapping, robbery or assault with a weapon.

Republican leaders, along with crime victims and their supporters, said the legislation is necessary to keep dangerous people behind bars before their trials. They pointed to numerous examples of defendants accused of violent crimes being released on bond and then committing new crimes, including a number of high-profile murder cases in Harris County.

In negotiations on the package, Democrats have sought to narrow the list of charges where judges could deny bail to avoid sweeping in defendants who aren’t a public safety threat or flight risk. They have also tried to include language that instructs judges to use the “least restrictive means” to secure public safety and ensure a defendant appears in court.

Under his push to automatically deny bail, Abbott would require defendants to prove to a judge that they are not a threat to public safety and will appear in court to get bail.

“Judges have far too much discretion to set easy bail on dangerous criminals,” he said at a news conference last week surrounded by the families of crime victims. “This shifts the burden for repeat violent criminals to prove that they are not a danger to the community before they’re released.”

Smithee, the House Criminal Jurisprudence chair, said that Abbott’s proposal was “appropriate” in certain cases, arguing that some judges were shirking their duty by letting dangerous defendants out on low and no bond. The ongoing discussions, he added, centered on defining the offenses that would qualify for automatic denial of bail.

“It’s certainly reserved for the most egregious offenses,” including murder and human trafficking, he said. “The bill really needs to do two things: One, it needs to give good judges the ability to do their job — in other words, to protect the public. And on the other hand, it needs to rein in some of the judges who’ve neglected to do that.”

Chuck Cook, whose elderly mother, Rosalie Cook, was stabbed and killed by a man who had nearly 70 prior arrests and was out of jail on two cashless bonds, urged lawmakers to “picture my mother’s face and make a decision accordingly” as they considered bail legislation.

“My mom died a lonely, painful death,” Cook said by Abbott’s side last week. “The system is supposed to be designed to protect the public and, most importantly, the most vulnerable. The system failed my mother.”

Civil rights advocates slammed both Abbott’s proposal and the existing legislation, arguing that the measure would undermine defendants’ constitutional right to due process and swell the state’s already overcrowded jails without improving public safety.

“Pretrial detention tears families apart, drains public resources and punishes people who haven’t been convicted of anything,” Nick Hudson, senior manager of policy and advocacy at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said, noting studies finding that pretrial detention is associated with an increased likelihood of later committing a crime. “All Texans should be worried about an attack on their right to be free before trial. Anybody can be accused of an offense.”

Hudson also criticized Abbott’s proposal for automatic denial of bail, which he said “just totally inverts the basic idea of innocent until proven guilty.”

Kirsten Budwine, an attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, argued that the legislation would “make Texans less safe by destabilizing the lives of legally innocent people.” She cited the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling stating that “liberty is the norm, and detention prior to trial or without trial is the carefully limited exception.”

“This bail package blatantly disregards that by doing the opposite — making pretrial detention the norm and liberty the exception,” she said, noting the stories of people who spent months in pretrial detention for crimes they did not commit. “People spend days, months and even years in jail just for the prosecutor to drop the case. But at that point, the harm has already been done.”

Smithee said it is a balancing act to craft a constitutional amendment that can satisfy the push to crack down on bail practices without going so far as to alienate Democrats and Republicans alike. The forthcoming package, he said, “operates within those confines.”

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — REAL ID requirements for those flying within the United States begin Wednesday after nearly 20 years of delays.

The day ahead of the deadline, people lined up at government offices across the country to secure their compliant IDs. In Chicago, officials established a Real ID Supercenter for walk-in appointments, while officials in California and elsewhere planned to continue offering extended hours for the crush of appointments.

“I’m here today so I won’t be right on the deadline, which is tomorrow,” said Marion Henderson, who applied for her REAL ID on Tuesday in Jackson, Mississippi.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday assured people who don’t yet have a REAL ID but need to take a domestic flight Wednesday that they will be able to fly after clearing additional identity checks.

Some complained about the need to secure the ID after waiting in line for hours.

Michael Aceto waited in line at a DMV in King of Prussia, in the Philadelphia suburbs, for about two and a half hours Tuesday before getting his REAL ID.

“It’s a pain in the butt. It’s really a lot of time. Everybody’s got to take off from work to be here,” he said. “It’s a big waste of time as far as I’m concerned.”

The Transportation Security Administration warned people who don’t have identification that complies with REAL ID requirements to arrive early at the airport and be prepared for advanced screening to avoid causing delays.

The new requirements have been the subject of many Reddit threads and Facebook group discussions in recent weeks, with numerous people expressing confusion about whether they can travel without a REAL ID, sharing details about wait times and seeking advice on how to meet the requirements.

Noem told a congressional panel that 81% of travelers already have REAL IDs. She said security checkpoints will also be accepting passports and tribal identification, like they have already been doing.

Those who still lack an identification that complies with the REAL ID law “may be diverted to a different line, have an extra step,” Noem said.

“But people will be allowed to fly,” she said. “We will make sure it’s as seamless as possible.”

REAL ID is a federally compliant state-issued license or identification card that Homeland Security says is a more secure form of identification. It was a recommendation by the 9/11 Commission and signed into law in 2005. It was supposed to be rolled out in 2008 but the implementation had been repeatedly delayed.

¨The whole idea here is to better validate those individuals that were encountering a checkpoint to ensure they are who exactly they say they are,” said Thomas Carter, TSA’s Federal Security Director in New Jersey.

Carter said those without a REAL ID should give themselves extra time to clear security.

“If they do that, I do not have a belief that this will cause people to miss their flights if they take that additional time in,” he said.

Besides serving as a valid form of identification to fly domestically, people will also need a REAL ID to access certain federal buildings and facilities.

State government offices that issue driver’s licenses and state IDs have seen a significant increase in demand for REAL ID and some have extended their office hours to meet the demand. Some officials have recommended people wait for a while to get REAL ID compliant licenses and cards if they don’t have flight planned in the next few months.

“We are encouraging people who have passports or other REAL ID-compliant documents and people who don’t have travel plans in the next few months to wait until after the current rush to apply for a REAL ID,” said Erin Johnson, a spokesperson with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

Johnson said that the department has seen a significant increase in demand for REAL ID in recent weeks. In February, there were more than 48,000 applications for a REAL ID; that has nearly doubled to over 99,000 in April, she said.