Kentucky has gotten a temporary reprieve on a regulation that threatens to make state-issued driver’s licenses invalid identification for uses such as flying commercially or entering federal facilities such as Fort Campbell. A state legislator said he’s confident a permanent fix will come this legislative session.

The state is still not in compliance with the federal REAL ID law – enacted in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks to tighten regulations regarding identification documents. REAL ID was signed into law by then-President George W. Bush in 2005. As a result of not being REAL ID complaint, Kentucky-issued IDs like driver’s licenses will not be accepted forms of ID for air travel as of January 2018.

Only eight states, including Kentucky, are not compliant with REAL ID. Passports will be the primary form of ID needed to board commercial flights unless the issue is resolved.

“Central issuance” is the main stumbling block, Ryan Watts, executive director of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Office of Public Affairs, said previously. In Kentucky, residents can get driver’s licenses at 144 locations; the REAL ID law calls for a more centralized system with rigorous background checks for employees of the issuing agency.

The Kentucky licenses would not have been valid IDs for entering federal facilities like military bases as of Jan. 31, but the Department of Homeland Security on Jan. 19 granted an extension to June 6. The extension was granted based on “the plans of your administration and legislative leaders to move forward on a legislative solution and their expectation that a vote will occur in the 2017 legislative session,” according to a letter to Gov. Matt Bevin’s office from the Department of Homeland Security.

And that’s exactly what Rep. Jim DuPlessis, R-Elizabethtown, expects to happen. DuPlessis and Myron Dossett, R-Pembroke, are sponsors of House Bill 77 that aims to make Kentucky REAL ID compliant.

“We will do something before the end of the session,” DuPlessis said. “Right now, we are in a holding pattern.”

That holding pattern is based on uncertainty about how the Trump administration will handle the REAL ID law. Whether it is left as is or amended, DuPlessis said legislators will respond accordingly.

It appeared the issue had been resolved in the last legislative session, but Bevin vetoed a measure to make the state REAL ID compliant.

“Good governance demands the courtesy of time needed to better understand and discuss the difference between REAL ID as originally envisioned by its authors, and the minimal and voluntary requirements authorized by” the bill, Bevin wrote of his veto.

DuPlessis said that shouldn’t happen this time around.

“We’ve been working with (Bevin’s) office. The governor’s aware, everyone’s aware” of the importance of addressing the issue, he said.

— Follow city government reporter Wes Swietek on Twitter @BGDNgovtbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.