Lawmakers pressed the Office of Motor Vehicles on April 7 over repeated mainframe outages and the approaching federal Real ID deadline, while the interim commissioner said the agency is seeking a replacement system.

“OMV is recommended to have 83,000,000 in the FY 26 budget,” the House Fiscal Division said in its slides. Interim Commissioner Bridal Adams told the committee he was focused on stabilizing the existing system and preparing a procurement for a new system. “We are focused on putting a band aid on the system that we have currently, and then we'll be back to you all very soon… with a request to purchase a new system,” Adams said.

Lawmakers described multiple recent failures of the legacy system and urged continued weekend openings and expanded hours to meet demand before the federally imposed Real ID deadline. Committee members pressed Adams on whether OMV would seek legislation or fee changes to pay for a new system; Adams said an initial price tag had been discussed in prior plans and that he would return with a “solid number” and any legislative proposals after review.

Committee members described the public burden from outages: constituents taking time off work, standing in long lines and returning multiple times when systems fail. Adams said the agency is running weekend hours and that his team and the Office of Technology Services had improved uptime for the Friday and Saturday prior to the hearing; he pledged to keep working until the system is stable.

OMB/OMV slides presented funding breakdowns: OMV's FY26 recommendation shows 91% of its budget from fees and self‑generated revenues, and a projected $11.6 million net increase driven largely by OTS monthly and modernization fee increases and two new federal grants supporting commercial driver's license improvements and anti‑human‑trafficking outreach.

Lawmakers and the commissioner agreed they would return with a precise modernization cost and supplemental requests if needed; no formal vote was taken at the hearing.