Faced with having to pay $500 million for federally mandated driver's licenses aimed at identifying illegal immigrants, California officials are looking to the new Democratic Congress for financial relief.

And they may find it in a Senate bill that essentially would repeal the so-called "Real ID" law, condemning it as an "unrealistic and unfunded burden on state governments."

Introduced by Sens. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and John Sununu, R-N.H., the bill would eliminate a cascade of federal driver's license standards that Congress passed last year and states must implement by May 2008.