Why is it problemm that the DHS has not issued its Real ID regulations yet?

I've often complained here that it is not possible for the states to develop their Real ID licenses, as required by law, until the DHS gets through specifying them. There's simply no guessing what small change the DHS might require that would force a lot of software to be rewritten and hardware to be modified or repurchased.

If you think it's "obvious" what should be on a drivers license, check out this Montana <,a href=http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2006/05/19/news/topnews/114930.txt>story in the Bismarck Tribune by Tom Rqaafferty. Montana has been imaginative about solving some license problems, and in the process they have added features to their licenses that the DHS might force on everyone else; or the DHS might force Montana to drop them. The story mentions thesse features:

• A second photo that will become blurry if photocopied.
  
• Licenses of people under 21 are printed vertically instead of horizontally, to make it easy to see that they are (probably still) underage.
  

The idea of distinguishing licenses for people underage could be troubling, if the Real ID licenses will be valid for eight years (one possibility). A person could be 28 and have an "underrage" license, which means that people may not check them carefully before selling liquor or cigs.
The DHS probably is not interested in liquor or cigs; it's intetested in terrorism. So the DHS is more likely to require all licenses to be printed the same way, for ease of scanning and reading.