The bags of hammers would have to have been buried under a rock not to have heard about this. It is been in the works for more than a year, and I must have seen several thousand TV ads telling people about it. I am sure they will have a “trial period” where you get one pass, that is, they’ll still let you in with your DL, but after that you will be superly screwed, because they will have a record of you not complying the first time. Last time I renewed my passport I got a passport card, too.
If you have the passport card, it’s probably a good idea to keep it in the little foil RFID shield sleeve which comes along with it.
The new passports (ePassport) I believe now have an encrypted RFID with biometric info - which shields itself when it’s closed. You can tell if yours is one of the ePassports I think, by whether it has the little rectangular logo on the front. Older passports without the RFID technology don’t have that logo.
The passport card also has an RFID chip - which doesn’t have as much info, but it won’t shield itself- so it can in theory be read remotely.
I believe however it will only potentially broadcast an identifying number. Still probably good to keep it in the sleeve State provides with it.