Thread: Homeland Security To Press Ahead With Real ID

Homeland Security To Press Ahead With Real ID

Friday, January 11, 2008 3:00 PM

WASHINGTON -- A controversial new government program requiring residents to obtain digital identification cards will be delayed to help cash-strapped states implement the plan, federal officials said on Friday.

In 2005, Congress passed the Real ID law, intended as a post-September 11 measure to improve the security of driver's licenses and similar non-driver cards that are an ubiquitous form of identification in the United States.

"Real ID will give law enforcement and security officials a powerful advantage against falsified documents, and it will bring some peace of mind to citizens wanting to protect their identity from theft by a criminal or illegal alien," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a release outlining the final implementation plan.

The program starts to take effect in May, but states have complained about the cost and short timeframe for compliance. Seventeen have either called for the repeal of the REAL ID act, or vowed not to comply.

REAL ID has also been criticized by civil liberties advocates as an invasion of privacy.

To address states' concerns, Homeland Security rolled back some deadlines and offered local officials $360 million to defray the costs.

The ID cards will be required for boarding a U.S. commercial flight and entering a federal facility or a nuclear power plant -- giving the federal government powerful leverage to compel compliance with the standards.

The department said the cost of complying with the new program would be about $3.9 billion, down 73 percent from $14.6 billion estimated earlier.

It said it reduced the cost mainly by stretching out the period over which older drivers would be required to get new identification cards. People under 50 must have the new licenses or other identification cards by December 2014, while those older will have an additional three years.

Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the program failed to address major concerns and he would seek to repeal key provisions.

The program, he said, "will not only lead to long lines at every (motor vehicle office), it will impose a massive unfunded mandate on state governments while offering absolutely no federal privacy protections to our citizens."

Under the program, states would be required to verify documents presented with license applications and to link their license databases into a national electronic network.

Critics say the program will amount to a national identification card -- which Americans have long opposed as a symbol of an overly powerful federal government -- and that the national network could compromise the privacy of the cardholders.

The first deadline for compliance is December 31, 2009, when states must have in place upgraded systems that ensure illegal aliens cannot obtain the digital licenses.

Some 227 million people hold drivers' licenses or identity cards given out by U.S. states, which issue or renew about 70 million each year.

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Homela ... 63677.html

The department said the cost of complying with the new program would be about $3.9 billion, down 73 percent from $14.6 billion estimated earlier.

Priorties first--BUILD THE BORDER FENCE HOMELAND SECURITY!

"First of all, the so-called War on Terror isn’t a war on terror at all, it’s a war on the Constitution and Bill of Rights; a war on the rights of the American people." Lynn Stuter, researcher, analyst

They are lying, They will put everyone in and just pass the costs onto us.

Read this thread http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-56088-300.html