If you recall, the original, pre-pandemic deadline for the move to REAL ID was October 21, 2020. Then, COVID-19 came along and threw a monkey-wrench into things. So, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pushed things back one year to October 21, 2021 to give people time to get things together while dealing with the pandemic.
With the amount of delays and postponements in almost every aspect of our lives that we've had to deal with over the last year, why not add in one more?