Dave Eberhart
A new federal regulation calls for upgraded drivers licenses to serve as a new universal ID, but some states are refusing to comply – and the loser in the confrontation may be you.
Starting as early as May 2008, if you live or work in the U.S. you’ll need a federally-approved ID card to travel by air, open a bank account, apply for your Social Security benefits, or use many government services.
The Real ID Act, signed by President Bush in 2005, requires every state to recertify drivers license and identification card holders, with a May 11, 2008, compliance date. It’s part of the war on terrorism – some of the 9/11 attackers had managed to apply for and get state IDs.
Sounds reasonable enough on its face, but it has some states in open defiance and others poised to join the fray.
Five states – Idaho, Washington, Montana, Arkansas and Maine – have enacted legislation informing the federal government that they will not comply with the Real ID Act.
In addition, 13 more states have passed legislation in one chamber of their legislatures to refuse compliance: Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Missouri, Minnesota, Georgia, South Carolina, West Virginia, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
And Massachusetts State Sen. Richard T. Moore has filed a bill seeking to stop implementation of the Real ID Act in that state – with Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley firmly in his corner. Their argument: The measure would create a false sense of security, lead to a lucrative black market for fake “Real IDs,” and increase the risk of identity theft.
Such arguments aside, it’s really all about the cost.
Cranking up Real ID may cost as much as $14.6 billion nationwide. Furthermore, individuals will get tagged with an additional $7.8 billion in fees, upping the bill to more than $22 billion.
Why so pricey?
The recertification process under Real ID calls for an in-person visit to state offices, such as the local department of motor vehicles — with a certified birth certificate, current U.S. Passport, Social Security card and proof of address in hand.
State DMVs will have to verify that these identity documents are legitimate, digitize them and store them permanently. In addition, Social Security numbers will have to be verified with the Social Security Administration.
Then information must be digitally stored on the drivers license card — at a minimum: name, birth date, sex, ID number, a digital photograph, and address, all wrapped up with a “common machine-readable technology.” The card must also feature “physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes.”
Some of the technology necessary for even this basic security compliance does not yet exist.
Everything from the color of the card backgrounds to the fonts used must conform to federal standards. States will have to completely overhaul their systems to comply.
Then there’s the data-sharing requirement.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requires states to set up information databases that are shared by all states, to allow information verification for drivers licenses, passports, and foreign documents.
But there isn’t even a national database system in place to verify basic birth certificates.
So what happens if deadlines come and go and your state has not complied?
Curiously, the program is voluntary. There are no built-in sanctions for non-compliance, such as withholding federal highway funds from the offending states. The real sanction of the Real ID will fall on the heads of the citizens of the non-complying states who run into formidable roadblocks at airports and federal buildings and at the Social Security Administration field offices. For when the grace period passes, only ID cards approved by Homeland Security can be accepted “for any official purpose” by the feds.
Some help in averting the looming train wreck appears to be coming from an unexpected quarter. A privacy committee of the DHS recently submitted to the agency comments about the Real ID Act that included its concerns about “the implementation costs, the privacy consequences, and the security of stored identity documents and personal information.”
Calling the Act “one of the largest identity management undertakings in history,” the Data Privacy & Integrity Advisory Committee noted that the DHS draft regulations did not address a comprehensive plan for securing the stored identity data that states around the country could use. Furthermore, the committee concluded, there were no outlined steps to foil the unauthorized access of information from the machine-readable strips on the back of the proposed cards.
Nothing is in place to answer complaints about the misuse of personal information, nor are the various state agencies required to inform consumers about the data collection, the purposes for which it will be used or how it will be stored.
“Failure to provide openness and transparency undermines accountability and trust,” the DHS committee wrote.
Meanwhile, Capitol Hill is not wholly in love with the plan. Early this year, Sens. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and John Sununu, R-N.H., brought forward a measure called the Identification Security Enhancement Act of 2007 that would fix some of the perceived shortcomings in the Real ID Act.
Among other things, the Enhancement Act requires that the feds and Real ID:
Currently, state drivers licenses aren’t easy for bars, banks, airlines and so on to swipe through card readers because they’re not uniform. Some may have barcodes but no magnetic stripes, and some may lack both. Steinhardt predicts the standardized federalized IDs will be a boon for nosey government agencies and aggressive marketers.
But critics are most upset about what they perceive as the potential creation of an instant set of second-class citizens – those without the magic card.
As presently configured, any state that issues a driver’s license or state ID card not passing muster must make that failing clear on the face of the card via “bold lettering” or a “unique design.” Holders of those cards would become stigmatized, say critics.
A broad coalition of more than 40 organizations has launched a national campaign urging the public to submit comments to the DHS expressing opposition to Real ID, according to a report in PC World.
“Basically this large coalition is trying to solicit public comment to stop the national ID system created by the Real ID Act,” says Melissa Ngo, senior counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based privacy group.
“There already is a large groundswell of public support against this national ID program. What we are trying to do is rally the public. They didn’t get a chance to speak out when Real ID was pushed through Congress attached to a military funding bill.
“Make no mistake, this is a national identification system that will affect your everyday life” and could eventually be used for a wider range of purposes than the DHS has stated, Ngo warns.
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