Travel

On December first, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that starting on February first, any passenger who presents themselves at an airport check-in and does not have a Real ID drivers’ license, passport, or other acceptable form of identification will be charged a new $45 fee. As you will see, a mere 10 days earlier the TSA formally set the fee at just $18.

That fee is to use a modernized alternative identity verification system, called TSA Confirm.ID. If the passenger goes through the process successfully, they will in essence be cleared for air travel but only for a period of 10 days.

In checking on the process that the TSA used to authorize this new fee, MrConsumer looked at the Federal Register where official notices are published. There, as of December 3, the only notice he found was dated November 20, 2025 entitled, “TSA Modernized Alternative Identity Verification User Fee.”

*MOUSE PRINT:

It said the fee was $18, not $45. Referring to the $18 fee, the Federal Register notice indicated:

When setting fees for services, TSA adheres to Federal policy, including policy outlined in the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-25, dated July 8, 1993, regarding user charges. In summary, the circular provides information regarding the basis upon which user charges are to be established and implemented.

TSA has compiled a fee development report that provides a detailed discussion of the modernized alternative identity verification program’s expected costs, expected population, and fee determination. A copy of the fee development report can be accessed at TSA.gov.

So this says they did detailed calculations to come up the $18 price. We could not find that report on the TSA website.

Then, less than an hour after we first checked the Federal Register on December 3, the TSA filed another notice there saying they recalculated the fee, and that it was now $45:

*MOUSE PRINT:

TSA is updating the fee associated with the TSA Confirm.ID based on review and revision of relevant population estimates and costs. The Fee Report now includes a revised estimate of the population likely to use the TSA Confirm.ID program, the impact of the fee on individuals’ decisions to obtain an AFOID instead of paying the fee and TSA’s implementation costs, which affect the total fee necessary to recover the costs of the program. Using the updated estimates and a revised methodology that accounts for usage rates based on similar historical and implementation trends, TSA recalculated overall costs and determined that the fee necessary to cover the costs of the TSA Confirm.ID program is slightly more than $45.00.

And like the original fee justification report, we could not find the new report on the TSA website as promised either.

Last week, we sent the TSA some pointed questions about the huge increase in the fees, including asking for an explanation of how the price of their new ID service jumped from $18 to $45 in just 10 days, and to provide copies of both fee development reports that were missing from their website. We did not hear back.

But late in the day on December 4, an ID fairness organization reported that the TSA finally posted the fee development reports on the TSA website.

*MOUSE PRINT:

The November report estimated the program would cost $1.12-billion and would serve 65.3 million passengers over five years. Their December report, however, estimated the five-year cost at $475.7-mllion and that only 10.6 million passengers would utilize it.

The industrious among you are free to analyze both reports to see if the TSA has fairly evaluated the anticipated costs and usage.