CQ Homeland Security -- Border Security
Real ID Proposal Will
Set Wheels in Motion But Opponents May Thwart
Card
A Sept. 11 commission
recommendation for states to issue nationally
uniform drivers' licenses will gain some
traction when the Department of Homeland
Security proposes a rule by the end of March.
However, implementation of the
commission recommendation may be delayed or
drastically modified. Lawmakers already have
challenged the idea of what some regard as a
national ID card, and the concept also has
triggered opposition from privacy advocates and
states that may have to absorb billions of
dollars in implementation costs.
The Real ID Act, signed into law
May 2005 as part of an emergency supplemental
spending bill (PL 109-13), requires states to
comply with minimum security standards for
issuing state driver’s licenses by May 11, 2008.
Otherwise, driver's licenses from non-abiding
states will cease to be accepted for boarding
federally regulated commercial aircraft,
entering federal facilities and nuclear power
plants, or for other purposes the secretary of
Homeland Security will determine.
The sponsor of the Real ID Act,
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., had
hoped for a proposed rule before the end of
March. He said in an e-mail to CQ Homeland
Security that he is "very disappointed in how
long DHS is taking" to issue the Notice of
Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) setting minimum
security standards for drivers' licenses.
"The requirements should have
come out last year -- states should already be
on the road to implementing Real ID," he said.
Without the NPRM, states don't have the initial
details they need to start implementing Real ID.
"At this point everybody's still
just waitng for the regs [the NPRM] to come
out," said Jodi Omear, spokeswoman for the
National Governors Association.
Jay Maxwell, the former chief
information officer of the American Association
of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) and now
CEO of Clerus Solutions, said that pilot testing
should have been conducted before the NPRM is
issued, because otherwise it is being done in "a
vacuum."
More of the $40 million
appropriated for Real ID in the fiscal 2006
homeland security appropriations law (PL 109-90)
should have been spent on pilot programs,
according to Maxwell. Currently $6 million has
been set aside for testing, he said.
None of the appropriated money
has been used for testing to date, but it
appears that Kentucky and New Hampshire will use
some of the $6 million to begin testing the Real
ID concept.
For example, states have not
begun to test how state databases could connect
in order to prevent multiple licenses being
issued to a single person, he said. Instead,
about a dozen states are currently analyzing
their own database -- but not consulting other
states' databases -- to see if they can detect
duplicate licenses.
Drivers license reform will also
improve highway safety by preventing bad drivers
from getting multiple licenses, and will reduce
benefit and voter fraud, according to Maxwell.
DHS should have issued the NPRM
by now, according to Maxwell. Not "embracing
states as partners" could be a reason for the
delay, he said.
The 9/11 commission report
recommended that the federal government set
"standards for the issuance of birth
certificates and sources of identification, such
as drivers licenses" because entry points to
vulnerable facilities are "the last opportunity
to ensure that people are who they say they are
and to check whether they are terrorists."
All but one of the Sept. 11
hijackers acquired some form of U.S.
identification, some by fraud, that would have
helped them board commercial flights, rent cars,
and more, according to the report.
DHS spokesman Jarrod Agen said
in an e-mail to CQ Homeland Security that since
the proposed regulations could affect millions
of drivers, the department wants "to ensure that
proper time and attention is given to drafting
the most effective and efficient proposal."
DHS has consulted extensively
with the National Governors Association, the
National Conference of State Legislators, and
state Department of Motor Vehicles, Agen said.
"The states' concerns will be
addressed in the draft regulation," according to
Agen.
Adm. James Loy, former deputy
Homeland Security secretary and now a senior
counselor at the D.C.-based Cohen Group, said
setting the minimum security standards is
"extraordinarily complex" and DHS is not taking
too long to issue the rulemaking.
But when the NPRM is issued,
Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, has said he will
"not hesitate to pursue a legislative change to
Real ID" if he finds the proposed rule
sacrifices privacy and unduly burdens the
states.
"I urge DHS to consider that as
regulations are finalized," Akaka said.
Akaka and Sen. John E. Sununu,
R-N.H, both members of the Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced a
bill at the end of last session to repeal the
Real ID Act.
Sununu could not be reached at
press time to confirm that he will coordinate
with Akaka this session to introduce legislation
to change Real ID, depending on the NPRM.
The Akaka-Sununu bill from the
109th Congress replaced the Real ID Act with
language similar to a section in the 2004
intelligence overhaul law (PL 108-458) on
driver’s licenses that was repealed by the Real
ID Act.