Rather than require states to meet an arbitrary deadline with hollow promises, the Department of Homeland Security should back up, reconsider the goals of the Real ID program and find a better way to meet them.

The department is requiring states to apply by March 31 for an extension for compliance with the new driver’s license rules. States that don’t seek such a waiver will be penalized – after May 11 their citizens will no longer be able to use their licenses as official identification to board airplanes and enter federal buildings.

Maine is one of only three states that have yet to seek an extension. The Maine Legislature last year passed a law forbidding the state from participating in Real ID, which sets national standards for driver’s licenses, because of concerns about the privacy of data that will be collected and the rising cost of complying with the federal law.

The extension request requirement is meaningless because several states have written to ask for a waiver of the March 31 deadline and gone on to say they have no intention of complying with the Real ID law. These requests have been granted.

The May 11 date is also nothing but punitive because no states are required to be fully compliant with Real ID until 2017.

Several senators, including Maine’s, raised these points in a letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff asking him to waive the March 31 extension request deadline.

“These regulations raise disturbing Constitutional issues regarding the ability of some citizens to travel freely and access their federal government,” the senators wrote. “Moreover, this sparingly applied regulation imposes onerous burdens on Americans from states that have not received an extension while doing nothing to improve the security of the traveling public or our nation’s critical infrastructure. As such, we believe a complete exemption for all states makes considerably more sense than the patchwork effort currently underway.”

Rep. Tom Allen goes further and suggests the whole program be repealed and replaced by a more comprehensive approach to improving identification documents. He calls for a panel of experts to do this work. Such a committee was created – Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap was a member – on the recommendation of the 9-11 Commission but was disbanded by Congress in favor of moving ahead with Real ID.

Eliminating the meaningless March 31 deadline – and the threats that Mainers won’t be able to board airplanes – and going back to the work of ensuring the documents required to obtain a driver’s license are secure is a better approach.