TSA officers still having trouble recognizing District of Columbia driver's licenses, delegate says

WASHINGTON - As many people travel during this time of year to visit family and friends for Christmas, some D.C. residents have run into some trouble during screenings at airports - all because of where they live. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton sent a letter to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) hoping to fix the "chronic problem."

According to Norton, TSA agents are still getting confused with IDs that say District of Columbia instead of Washington D.C.

In the letter to TSA Administrator David Pekoske, she wrote that as recently as Thanksgiving, a D.C. resident nearly missed her flight at Newark International Airport in New Jersey because a TSA officer would not accept her older D.C. driver's license, which says "District of Columbia" on the top as a valid form of ID.

Norton writes in part, "As I am sure you can imagine, it can be humiliating for a U.S. citizen to be delayed because a federal government employee does not recognize the name of the District of Columbia."

This confusion all started in 2014 when D.C. updated its licenses to be compliant with the REAL ID Act. Those licenses changed the wording on top of the cards to District of Columbia instead of Washington D.C.

Because of the confusion, new IDs are now back to saying Washington D.C.

The TSA said in a statement to the Washington Post that the agency has issued reminders to officers not to turn away people with District IDs.