SB 1121 Center for Motorcycle Safety and Crash Prevention

Big Brother: In your wallet, in more ways than one.

By the year 2013 hundreds of millions of Americans will be required to carry new digital ID cards. The new law, passed by Congress as an amendment to a military spending bill (which means, it was not debated on its own merits), was signed into law in 2005 and is commonly known as, The Real ID Act. New regulations prepared by DC bureaucrats (who are as trustworthy as those folks at NHTSA and the EPA) were released this past Thursday.

Among the mandates of the new regulations, (which are not final and subject to a public comment period), are:

• Real ID cards must include all drivers' home addresses and other personal information printed on the front and in a two-dimensional barcode on the back. The barcode will not be encrypted because of "operational complexity," which means that businesses like bars and banks that require ID would be capable of scanning and recording customers' home
addresses.

• Homeland Security is considering standardizing a "unique design or color for Real ID licenses," which would effectively create a uniform national ID card. A radio frequency identification (RFID) using vicinity tag technology is also under consideration by our friends and neighbors in the Homeland Security Office.

• Residents of individual states who do not submit their plan for compliance will not be able to use IDs to board planes or enter federal buildings starting on May 11, 2008. The draft regulations require states to certify that they're on the path toward full compliance with the Real ID Act no later than December 31, 2009.

If carrying “Big Brother around in your wallet doesn’t bother you, maybe you should consider how much of your tax dollars will be spent at the state and federal level or the increased cost of individual citizen license fees.
The National Conference of State Legislatures and other state groups estimated last year that states will have to spend more than $11 billion. But Homeland Security says the total cost--including the cost to individuals--will be $23.1 billion over a 10-year period.

A Push for repeal continues:

Opponents of the Real ID Act, who have been advising states to publicly oppose the system, said that the draft rules do not protect the privacy of American Citizens. More than 50 groups, including the National Organization for Women and the United Automobile Workers, sent a letter on Monday 26 February endorsing a bill sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins
(R-ME), that would reduce Homeland Security's power to order states to comply  with the law. The letter from the advocacy groups says it was a "poorly-conceived law that can never be made to work in any fair or reasonable manner."

The ACLU believes Collins' bill is only a half-hearted step that doesn't go as far as it should. Other proposals include one from Rep. Thomas Allen (D-ME) that would rewrite the Real ID Act, insert privacy safeguards,  and provide more than $2 billion to states over an eight-year period. Another broader bill that repeals the existing law was introduced by Sen. John Sununu (R-NH), and Daniel Akaka (D-HI). 

Some state governments, such as Maine, already have come out against  the Real ID Act, demanding the states rights established in the US Constitution, and daring the federal government to continue even when  some states refuse to participate. At least eight states (including Arizona, Georgia, Washington, and Vermont) have had anti-Real ID bills approved by one or both chambers of the legislature.

For their part, proponents of the Real ID Act say it's designed to implement proposals suggested by the 9/11 Commission, and is simply a way to stop future terrorist attacks and deter illegal immigrants. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said, "These standards correct glaring vulnerabilities exploited by some of the 9/11 hijackers who used fraudulently obtained drivers licenses to board the airplanes in their attack against America."

A 23-page report released this week by Janice Kephart, a former lawyer  with the 9/11 Commission, defended the Real ID Act by calling it a "significant step in enhancing our national and economic security and our public safety." States bowing out of Real ID requirements is "not the way to secure America," the report says. “Congress must step up to the plate and make securing of identity documents the national priority that our  citizens deserve." Kephart is the current president of 9/11 Security Solutions.  You decide if her opinions are biased and/or self serving.

What you can do to prevent this egregious infringement on your right to privacy.

1. Contact your state and federal elected officials to demand that they stop this infringement on the privacy of US citizens.
2. Make sure you comment on the proposed regulations when the public comment period opens. It’s your country. You have the right and the obligation to be involved in your government.

Doc Ski
Keep The Faith. Support our Troops in the war on terror...Wear Red every Friday.
docskivnv@earthlink.net