US Issues National ID Standards, Setting Stage for a Showdown
By Matthew L. Wald
The New York Times
Saturday 12 January 2008
Washington - The federal government issued national standards on Friday
that states would have to meet in order for driver's licenses they issue to
qualify as identification at airports and federal buildings, setting the
stage for a confrontation with states that have voted not to cooperate.
Under a measure known as Real ID legislation, the states must comply by
May 11, the third anniversary of the measure's enactment, or obtain a waiver
from the Department of Homeland Security.
Meeting the May 11 deadline is impossible because the regulations have
been delayed so long, but Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland
security, said Friday that his department would issue a waiver to states that
promised to comply later.
He laid out a very long schedule, with the final deadline in December
2017, more than 16 years after the events that prompted the law, the attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001.
Several states have voted not to comply. One is Washington, where the
chairwoman of the Senate's transportation committee, when asked what
difference the new federal rules would make, said, "None."
The Washington Legislature is to begin a special session on Monday but it
will be brief, said Senator Mary Margaret Haugen, the chairwoman.
"It's very unrealistic of the federal government to think that states
that are not in session or in a short session can resolve this in a short
time frame," she said. "Our state has said we will not spend money on the
Real ID unless they fund it, and I don't see any money coming from the
federal government."
In Washington and elsewhere, state lawmakers have complained that the
requirements add up to a national identification card, that it is too costly,
puts privacy at risk and poses severe technical challenges.
The Legislature in Maine overwhelmingly passed a resolution last January
vowing not to comply. The Legislature there is in its "short session" and can
take up only legislation that all the leadership decides is an emergency,
said Peggy Schaffer, chief of staff to the Senate majority leader.
Ms. Schaffer predicted that pressure from the airlines might force the
federal government to reverse itself.
The airlines, in fact, are worried, because travelers with driver's
licenses from states that do not have a waiver would have to use a passport
or a military ID, or face additional screening, including a pat-down.
"This has the potential to be hugely problematic," said David
Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a trade
association of the major carriers. "It appears as if the Department of
Homeland Security is placing the burden on the traveling public for a state's
inability to comply."
Exactly how many states will decide not to apply for waivers is unclear.
Arkansas, Idaho, Montana and others have voted against the program, which was
a central recommendation of the Sept. 11 Commission.
States would have to require applicants for new licenses or renewals to
prove they are legally in the country, and then record and verify the
documents.
Opponents have complained that passports and Social Security cards are
easy to verify promptly, but birth certificates, issued by thousands of
jurisdictions, are not.
While some states are in revolt, others were moving to tighten their
licensing standards even before Sept. 11. And some advocates say that tighter
controls would help prevent identity theft and drunken driving.
"We can kill three birds with one stone if we get ourselves on a path to
a secure driver's license," Mr. Chertoff said.
Civil libertarians counter that the new licenses must have all the
information encoded into a machine-readable bar code. These will be read by
retail stores, hotels and other companies, the American Civil Liberties Union
predicted, creating powerful intrusions of privacy.
Barry Steinhardt of the A.C.L.U. predicted that the program would never
take effect. By setting deadlines so far in the future, he said, the
administration had "kicked the can down the road" to the next one.
The schedule released Friday calls for compliant licenses for everyone
under 50 by May 11, 2014, and for those 50 and over, by Dec. 1, 2017.
The Homeland Security Department decided this would lower costs,
according to Mr. Chertoff. He called it "risk management," saying older
people were less likely to be terrorists.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011208Y.shtml
--
"You tried to steal the identity of a James G. Keegan Jr. who did in
fact author a book, and you're trying to convince people that you are
the same person." -- corrupt prison clerk heishman lying as "Osprey"
in an effort to cover-up his earlier lie that i was not an author
<noneedtok...@mail.com>
in<v4qdndNQW_fFAMXanZ2dnUVZ_sOrn...@comcast.com>
.
|
