The Driver License Joint Compact Executive Board (the Board) began work on the DLA at the Compact Annual Membership meeting in October 1996. Having originated in concept with the 1994 establishment of a North American Driver License Agreement (NADLA) task force, the DLA emerged to become the Board’s main focus. The Board sought at every opportunity to gather input regarding elements necessary for inclusion in a non-systems based agreement that unified the existing Driver License Compact and the Non-Resident Violator Compact.
A 1994 Compact Compliance Survey of members indicated that no member jurisdiction was then in full compliance with either Compact. The results of a 1997 survey of members established the primary components of the DLA. The DLA was discussed at numerous AAMVA and Compact membership meetings. AAMVA provides Secretariat services for the Board, and an AAMVA Board Advisory attends Compact meetings.
In September 1999, AAMVA secured federal funding for two top-level administrators from each jurisdiction to attend a DLA Administrator’s Forum. Based upon discussions at the Forum, and written surveys taken at the close of the meeting, four issues were determined to need resolution within the DLA:
1) Valid in one state-only licenses
2) Transmission of non-DLA Code withdrawals
3) Original violation costs related to Failure to Comply
4) The 10-day reporting requirement for convictions.
The Board subsequently revised the DLA regarding original violation costs for Failure to Comply and the 10-day reporting requirement. Failure to Comply notices will no longer be restricted to fines and fees deriving only from the original violation and jurisdictions will be permitted 30 days to transmit conviction information. The Board sought further input from membership regarding the two remaining issues above.
The membership voted unanimously to ask the AAMVA Board of Directors "for an endorsement of the DLA as drafted," notwithstanding further consideration of the two remaining issues. In January 2000, the AAMVA Board voted to endorse the work accomplished to date and to continuing work on the DLA and its accompanying documents. Two Board members abstained and two voted "no.".
The Compact Executive Board resolved the two remaining issues by deleting specific references to the Valid in One State Only license from the DLA. As a result, this makes the DLA silent on the issue, and yet does not proscribe such jurisdictional programs.
For example, the Valid in Florida Only license may continue to be issued and will not be recognized outside of Florida. If a jurisdiction elects to have such a program, it will be solely responsible for any public safety issues arising from not regularly checking the home jurisdiction’s driver records or implementing other appropriate safeguards. The definition of "License" now includes the words, "recognized by all other jurisdictions." Valid in One State Only licenses would not meet this definition. This compromise seems to meet jurisdictional needs without raising potential legal issues.
Language in the DLA that would prohibit transmission of non-DLA Code withdrawal information--primarily as a customer service--issue has also been eliminated. The Compact Executive Board has asked AAMVA to develop several technological strategies to permit this to occur, without violating DLA and DLA Code precepts. A fully functioning program of this type may have inherent costs to jurisdictions and may not be feasible for several years, vis-à-vis DRIVerS (the all driver pointer system currently undergoing feasibility testing). Nevertheless, it could be incorporated later into the DLA procedures manual, and would not stand in the way of jurisdictions wanting to adopt the DLA sooner.
The DLA was approved in fall 2000.
In August 2002, the membership was surveyed on whether or not the DLA should be enhanced with DL/ID security requirements. AAMVA driver's license chief administrators showed support for enhancing the DLA with security requirements by a vote of 48 states in favor and three states against.
After two years of hard work by the countless jurisdictional members, the Compact Executive Board released a revised DLA to the membership at its 2004 DLC/NRVC General Membership Meeting.