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| New security rules for driver's licenses |
| 2008-01-11 |
| Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11 security rules to be unveiled Friday by federal officials. The Homeland Security Department has spent years crafting the final regulations for the REAL ID Act, a law designed to make it harder for terrorists, illegal immigrants and con artists to get government-issued identification. The effort once envisioned to take effect in 2008 has been pushed back in the hopes of winning over skeptical state officials. Even with more time, more federal help and technical advances, REAL ID still faces stiff opposition from civil liberties groups. To address some of those concerns, the government now plans to phase in a secure ID initiative that Congress passed into law in 2005. Now, DHS plans a key deadline in 2011, and then further measures to be enacted three years later, according to congressional staffers who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not yet been made. DHS officials briefed legislative aides on the details late Thursday. Without discussing details, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff promoted the final rules for REAL ID during a meeting Thursday with an advisory council. "We worked very closely with the states in terms of developing a plan that I think will be inexpensive, reasonable to implement and produce the results," he said. "This is a win-win. As long as people use driver's licenses to identify themselves for whatever reason there's no reason for those licenses to be easily counterfeited or tampered with." In order to make the plan more appealing to cost-conscious states, federal authorities drastically reduced the expected cost from $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion, a 73 percent decline, according to Homeland Security officials familiar with the plan. The American Civil Liberties Union has fiercely objected to the effort, particularly the sharing of personal data among government agencies. The DHS and other officials say the only way to make sure an ID is safe is to check it against secure government data; critics like the ACLU say that creates a system that is more likely to be infiltrated and have its personal data pilfered. In its written objection to the law, the ACLU claims REAL ID amounts to the "first-ever national identity card system," which "would irreparably damage the fabric of American life." The Sept. 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes. The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had a total of four driver's licenses and ID cards from three states. The DHS, which was created in response to the attacks, has created a slogan for REAL ID: "One driver, one license." |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #4 seems to me the easiest solution would be to let the states keep doing their thing and use a reganesque approach... create a secure ID format and require a secure ID for travel and the opening of a bank account or to wire money across state lines and all other things currently regulated under federal law. the need to have a secure ID for these activities will in fact drive compliance by market forces. |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2008-01-11 15:40 |
| #3 Washington has enacted this, as well as British Columbia, due to public backlash over the earlier requirement for passports. But i still don't understand the reasoning that these DL are ok for surface travel ( car / boat) but for air travel you still need a passport. especially since the TSA does such a marvelous job screening out threats from the skies..... |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. 2008-01-11 14:15 |
| #2 Exactly the point. DMVs around the country are the lowest order of government, and are often highly corrupt. This near guarantees that Real IDs will be useless. Overnight, all the illegals and criminals will suddenly get IDs from the corrupt States. Right now, I think either Tennessee or Kentucky have a reputation as the most popular fake drivers license. However, it is a matter of scale. Also, I think several States have already voted to opt out of the program. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-01-11 09:15 |
| #1 With governors like Bill Richardson (D-NM) directing that the state MVD issue licenses to illegals, how is going to be 'secure'? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-01-11 08:43 |