My husband said he heard that Louisiana residents flying to other states besides Texas will need a passport aft Jan 1. Is that true?

Passport required for travel within the US? Not likely.

Actually and amazingly, it may be true. I Googled a bit and found articles like this one, but most of the articles were written in October or so, so am not sure if Louisiana and other states have made necessary changes to avoid this problem.

That's just ridiculous. I can't really see that happening... although we are talking about our government now, aren't we?

Actually, reading more on the Real ID act, its not ridiculous. Nor do I see the issues mentioned by the LA Rep who authored the bill to opt out.

The premise behind the bill is the requirement that states verify the identification used to obtain a driver's license or state ID (a non driver license). Federal properties and agencies will not accept ID that is not up to the more stringent standards imposed by the act. Therefore, residents of the states that have opted out will have to produce forms of ID acceptable to federal authorities (i.e. a passport).

Seems to me that any form of identification, if it falls into the wrong hands, can be used for identity theft. So it looks to me like the states opting out are really just trying to save the money they would have had to spend to bring their IDs and procedures up to the new federal standards. Rather than do so, they are passing the cost and inconvenience to their citizens by requiring them to get passports.

Yes Scott, it is ridiculous... But you probably misunderstood what I was saying. Just exactly what you said makes it ridiculous. The states can't be bothered or don't want to spend the money so it's not their problem and because of that, people will need passports to fly within the country. Stupid really.