Not REAL ID-compliant? Get ready to pay up.

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Marketplace

News, Business

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Transportation Security Administration announced earlier this week that passengers without a REAL ID or other acceptable documents (like a passport or tribal ID) will have to pay a $45 fee for the extra screening required to get through security. We'll hear more. Plus, as part of our continued lunar economy series, we'll learn about what developing infrastructure or communications systems on the moon might look like.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Might we soon look up into the night sky to see a crescent or round-shaped economy?
0:08.5	I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. First, the front of your ID card, including driver's license. Does it have the little star shape indicating it's a real ID? More today on TSA Airport Security announcing people with an ID but without real ID will soon have to pay a $45 fee.
0:26.4	Marketplaces Kimberly Adams has more.
0:28.5	Most current driver's licenses are real IDs, which meet higher federal security standards.
0:33.9	There have been 17 years for people to get compliant with real ID.
0:38.2	Janice Kephardt is CEO of Identity Compliance firm Zip ID and consulted on the 9-11 Commission that spawned the stricter identity requirements.
0:47.5	It's only about 6% of people might not be presenting a real ID or a biometric equivalent at this point. So it's a pretty small
0:56.6	percentage. And who are those folks? Mostly people who don't travel much by air, says Ifaynoe
1:02.7	Davis of Louisiana Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. This can also be really difficult or
1:09.0	challenging for people who have missing birth records, for people
1:12.5	who are dealing with the legality around their name change.
1:16.6	Critics of the new fee say most people will probably just pay to finally get their real IDs
1:21.8	rather than deal with the hassle, which is kind of the point, says the TSA's Steve Lawrence. For us, the big push is security.
1:31.2	The big push is compliance. The big push is for people to get their real ID. But if they don't,
1:38.6	starting February 1st, they'll either need to pay the fee online in advance or expect to spend even more time going through security at the airport.
1:47.7	In Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams for Marketplace.
1:50.9	The $45 fee will be good for 10 days of travel, so for trips longer than that, passengers with ID but not real ID would pay again.
1:59.1	Passports are among a short list of documents that will still work at airport security without the fee.
2:04.4	This is all come February.
2:06.3	The Financial Times is reporting now that the U.S. stopped a plan to hit China's spy agency with sanctions in order to keep trade negotiations moving forward.
2:15.7	The plan sanctions have been designed to respond to a massive cyber espionage campaign that had targeted top U.S.
2:21.9	officials.
	...

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