FROM ABC NEWS:
This fee is part of the agency’s next phase of the REAL ID implementation process and will require individuals to verify their identity through a biometric or biographic system if they don’t have a compliant form of identification before they’re permitted to cross through the checkpoint.
The announcement follows a proposed rule published in the Federal Register last month, but the agency increased the fee from its previously proposed amount of $18.
The TSA will use the fee to pay for administrative and IT costs associated with ID verification.
“The fee was necessary because we needed to modernize the system. We needed to make sure that the system is safe,” Steve Lorincz, TSA’s deputy executive assistant administrator for security operations, told ABC News.
The fee is intended to ensure that expenses for the system are paid by travelers and not taxpayers.
READ MORE AT ABC NEWS
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