The Washington state House and Senate have condemned a move by the federal government that will, in effect, establish a national ID system by 2008. The federal law (HR418), titled the "Real ID Act," supersedes state laws protecting individual rights of privacy and places driver licensing and birth certificate regulation under control of the Department of Homeland Security.
Scheduled to go into effect by May 2008, Real ID requires each of us to establish that we are who we say we are when we go to obtain or renew our state drivers license or ID card. Each of us will be required to provide-and the state will be required to verify-a photo ID, proof of date of birth, proof of Social Security number (or proof of lack of eligibility), proof of address and proof of citizenship or lawful immigration status.
Once our identity has been established, that information (and perhaps more), along with verification of our documents, will be entered into a national database network, accessible at literally hundreds of thousands of locations, including Canada and Mexico, with no restrictions on the type of data accumulated, or how that information is used and by whom.
Your new license or ID, designed by DHS (Department of Homeland Security), will include magnetic strips, enhanced barcodes or RFID (Radio Frequency Identifier chips-electronically readable from a distance without the bearer's knowledge). The choice of which technology to use is up to Homeland Security, which may also add requirements like "biometric identifiers" such as your fingerprints or a retinal scan.
The purpose of this act is, of course, to prevent terrorism. We need to separate the few bad guys from all of us good guys by making all of our personal information more public. Then we'll be safer.
The Washington state Legislature's memorial (H-3525.1 House Joint Memorial 4029) states that the Legislature "...affirms its commitment to protecting the civil rights and civil liberties of all Washington residents and opposes any measures, including the Real ID Act, that unconstitutionally infringe upon those civil rights and civil liberties."
The memorial urges Congress to repeal the law, but holds no legal weight. However, Real ID itself is simply a request for compliance. The act is strictly voluntary. States that do not wish to receive federal funding in other areas-or whose residents find no need to work, vote, travel, cash a check, open a bank account, enter a federal building, go to the hospital, enroll in a public school, receive Medicare or other federal benefits, purchase insurance or buy a gun-will have no real need to comply.
Law enforcement officers, judges, prosecutors and victims of domestic violence will be keeping their shades drawn. Each drivers license or ID, without exception, must display a "verifiable physical place of residence." As an added bonus of this requirement, we won't have to worry about homeless people driving all over the place and spending our tax dollars on Medicare, food stamps or other federal benefits.
Chances are, at this point, you're waiting for the punchline. You've never heard of the Real ID Act, and it all sounds rather improbable. A quick poll of people I know, who are usually fairly well informed, proved that you are not alone.
The bill was first introduced in 2004 by House Judiciary chair F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). The Congressman, backed by a number of House Republicans, almost sank the entire 2004 intelligence reform bill by refusing to sign the conference agreement without the inclusion of the Real ID bill, which had overwhelming opposition. In order to get the intelligence reform bill on the books, House Republican leaders promised Sensenbrenner that if he backed off, they-one way or another-would get his ID bill passed in early 2005.
Moving such controversial legislation through the House and Senate is no easy task-unless it is piggybacked on legislation that no politician concerned about his or her career would dare vote against. That is exactly what was done.
Defined as "emergency, must-pass legislation," HR 1268, The Emergency Supplemental Wartime Appropriations Act, appropriated funds for the war in Iraq, United States military operations in Afghanistan and relief for the victims of the December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The bill quickly passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by George Bush on May 11, 2005. Quietly going along for the ride, and thus skirting significant floor or committee debate or hearing, was Sensenbrenner's Real ID Act.
According to Sensenbrenner: "The goal of the Real ID Act is straightforward: it seeks to prevent another 9/11-type attack by disrupting terrorist travel." Such a comment is simply a convenient excuse, riding on the coattails of fear, for tracking and maintaining data on each and every American citizen.
Experts in the electronic security field say implementation of the act will only increase identity theft and will do little to prevent terrorists from entering and recruiting within our borders.
With no restrictions on the collection and use of data, problems will arise with the inevitable collection of personal information by businesses such as bars and private liquor stores electronically scanning IDs, collecting that information and selling it to data-mining companies. Then you have the inevitable expansion of use by other government agencies, as well as hundreds of private companies. Add to that the strong desire of DHS to use RFID chips as identifiers, and you have a very serious breach of the liberties our Constitution was written to protect.
This kind of stuff is the meat of conspiracy theories, but to any good student of history with an eye on current database practices, rebuking such inevitable breaches is just good common sense.
The Washington state Legislature is joined by more than 600 organizations that oppose this act, including the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, National Council of State Legislatures, Cato Institute, the National Governors Association and (this just in) the state of Maine.
Real ID is a bad idea.
Buddy Logan is a former employee of Pacific Publishing.[[In-content Ad]]
