Hearing Sunday on license plan
BY JAMES T. MADORE AND JOIE TYRRELL
October 14, 2007

The first public hearing by a committee of the State Legislature on Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants is scheduled for tomorrow morning in Albany.

Political observers say the proposed policy does not appear to comply with a proposed federal regulation -- called "REAL ID" -- that would require Americans to carry standardized driver's licenses.

The licenses, which would include a Social Security number, would be shown to board aircraft or enter federal buildings.

But under Spitzer's policy, immigrants who apply for licenses would need only to produce foreign passports. They don't have U.S. Social Security numbers.

While the Department of Homeland Security has said that it wanted states to be ready to issue the new Real ID licenses as of next year, the regulations will not apply to the general public until 2013.

Spitzer has said that the state can't make policy decisions based on federal regulations that remain in draft stage. "New York is going with the realities we have to deal with and we'll wait and see what Real ID requires of us," Spitzer said last month.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state ... 6655.story