In the future, the state will have to make room for exact legal names on driver’s licenses —  even names like Patricia Allision Steigleder-Vancleeflemaster or Francisco Delosangeles Buenrostro-Galvezvaldovinos.

That means the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles will have to redesign the driver’s license to hold up to 125 letters for a name rather than the current 35. And it means residents will have to track down legal documents that prove their identity and legal name, starting with a certified birth certificate, to meet new federal requirements under the Real ID Act.

“If you didn’t have a headache before this, you’d have one now,” said state Sen. Tom Baker, after Beverly Neth, director of the state’s motor vehicles agency, detailed the federal requirements for future state driver’s licenses to the Legislature’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee last month.

In fact, the Real ID is going to be a real headache for state bureaucracy and many Nebraskans, according to Neth’s description of the federal mandate.

The state agency will have to redesign its licenses system to meet very specific federal requirements, upgrade its computer systems and hire more people to provide Nebraskans with this federally approved identification card.

Residents will have to give specific documents, including a certified birth certificate, proof of Social Security number, a picture ID, plus marriage and divorce decrees for women whose names have changed. And the state will have to verify and save digitized images of all these documents.

And most folks, including children, will need this federally approved document. You will need it to get on an airplane or into a federal building. “In order to travel it’s going to be a necessity,” Neth said.

The new federal law, a response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will make it tougher to pretend to be someone else. And it will eliminate state independence on state driver’s licenses and ID cards, basically turning them into a federal ID.

It will be a one-size-fits-all type of document, Neth says of the Real ID, which is supposed to be in use within three years.

But Baker, chairman of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee, thinks Congress may back away from the strict requirements before the May 2008 deadline because of the problems and added expense.

“I gotta believe that there will be such a public outcry that they are going to have to go back and redo it,” he said.

“Once the public gets ahold of this, they will see how ridiculous it is. We need to put some common sense back into this,” he said.

Neth says she can’t estimate Nebraska’s potential cost until the federal rules are in place. But the Washington state budget director estimated that state would spend $150 million over the first three years of implementing the new system.

States will get help from the federal government, but the price of a driver’s license is likely to go up, Neth said.

Just the simple requirement that legal names must be used will create work and consternation. Today’s driver’s license accommodates 35 characters — enough for 99 percent of all legal names. To accommodate 100 percent of the names, the agency will have to provide space for 125 characters — which means very small letters or larger cards, Neth said.

And this requirement means no more nicknames or initials. You will have to use your legal name — by birth, marriage or court-approved change.

For instance, you cannot be Bill Johnson if your legal name is William Robert Johnson, Neth said.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.

Real ID, real headaches?

Among the new requirements of the Real ID Act:

* Immigrants will have to show official documents that prove they are U.S. citizens or permanent residents before getting a driver’s license.

* Residents will have to give specific documents, including a certified birth certificate, proof of Social Security number, a picture ID, plus marriage and divorce decrees for women whose names have changed. States will have to verify and save digitized images of all these documents.

* States will have to make room for exact legal names on driver’s licenses.

* Residents, including children, will need this federally approved document to get on an airplane or get into a federal building.