Folks, this will be a bit long, but let me see if I can untangle this. The Act does indeed say this:
BUT, we must also look at how the Act itself defines "official purpose." In Section 201 of the act, we read
So, what has the Secretary determined? Well, let's see...
From the Dept of Homeland Security,
https://www.dhs.gov/real-id :
That's not a broad brush painting
all "Federal purposes." It's merely access control for fed facilities, nuke plants, and commercial aircraft.
In fact, there are a few limitations....
Furthermore,...
There are only a small number of "official purposes" defined in the Act and by DHS, and
identification to satisfy the FAR is NOT one of them.