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A CASE FOR THE REAL-ID ACT
By: Barbara Cubin
1/23/08
Consider for a moment the case of Ziad Jarrah. On September 9, 2001, Mr. Jarrah was stopped for speeding. He showed the officer his license. The officer, having no way to use the license to determine any information about Mr. Jarrah, including that he possessed three ID’s, and had entered the U.S. illegally, issued him a speeding ticket, and let him go. Two days later, he helped to hijack United Flight 93.
Among them, the 9/11 terrorists had some 30 valid driver’s licenses or state ID’s. Some were obtained through legal processes, others fraudulently. Either way, their ID’s granted them access and legitimacy to plan and carry out their attacks.
Like it or not, these are the facts.
In the aftermath, the 9/11 Commission recommended that a secure ID replace the patchwork system that had been exploited to kill thousands of Americans. In response, Congress passed the REAL ID Act of 2005. Recently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its long-awaited rules on how states will implement the program.
Last week, Wyoming’s largest newspaper, The Casper Star Tribune, responded to the new rules with an incomplete, one-sided editorial bursting at the seams with misinformation. Please allow me to inject some truth about REAL ID into the debate.
False claim #1: “The national political landscape is different today than it was three years ago, when the GOP-controlled Congress bowed to the Bush administration on security issues.”
- Truth: REAL ID was a top recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, not President Bush. That Congress created REAL ID in response to the 9/11 Commission cannot be construed as bowing to the Bush administration. If the Democrat controlled Congress repeals REAL ID, it will be because they bowed to the ACLU at the expense of our safety.
False claim #2: “REAL ID will be the first-ever national identification card...”
- Truth: In no way is REAL ID a national ID. In fact, by designating states as the issuer of the REAL ID, Congress definitively put to rest the notion that it would be a centralized, national ID. The idea that REAL ID is designed to keep track of Americans in a huge centralized database is a scare-tactic developed by the ACLU that has no basis in fact.
False Claim #3: “The closer America comes to implementing a federal driver’s license law, the worse it looks.”
- Truth: REAL ID is not a federal driver’s license. The ID’s will be designed and administered by each individual State, not the federal government. States are only required to meet minimum security standards.
- Rather than looking worse, the final rules are the product of a year of collaborative work with nearly every state Department of Motor Vehicles, including input from nearly 21,000 interested parties. The results are rules that provide states more flexibility, more time to comply, and ultimately cost less.
False claim #4: “It will compile private information for government agencies to share and for computer hackers to steal.”
- Truth: Government agencies will not share information except to check the legitimacy of the ID. The purpose of REAL ID is to empower a Wyoming State Trooper to know quickly and accurately if a pulled-over out of state resident (or someone like Ziad Jarrah) is exactly who they claim to be. The Trooper would not be able to access personal information, they would only be able to confirm if the ID was real and legitimate. In fact, the Fraternal Order of Police has said that it will oppose any effort to repeal REAL ID.
- As for identity theft, the security and non-duplication measures of REAL ID will make it more difficult for thieves to steal your identity. States must submit a security plan to DHS, including how data will be secured against theft. Additionally, the REAL ID system will prevent a thief from obtaining a new license from a different state under your name.
False claim #5: “The program threatens individual privacy in the name of national security.”
- Truth: REAL ID is no more a threat to your privacy than your current license. REAL ID’s will contain the following information: Full name, date of birth, address, gender, signature, issuance date, expiration date, unique license number, digital photo, and machine readable technology. Sound familiar? It should, because these items are on your current Wyoming license. In fact, the Wyoming license you carry today already exceeds REAL ID expectations in many respects.
The newspaper got one thing right. The cost to implement REAL ID ought not rest unfairly on states. I have said repeatedly that I will work to ensure that the federal government does its part to fund states’ transition to REAL ID. However, even in this, the paper confuses the issue. The estimated $3.9 billion cost is a nationwide estimate. Wyoming will spend only a fraction of that amount, in part because Wyoming’s Division of Driver Services has already made great strides to ensure that your license is a secure, official ID. I congratulate them on their quick progress.
In another recent editorial, the editor-in-chief of the CST boasted that his paper is “scrupulously fair.” Given their apparent disinterest in actual facts regarding REAL ID, I leave it to Wyoming’s capable readers to determine how far the laugh-o-meter should move in response to such a preposterous claim. The truth is that using scare tactics and misinformation is not fair, and the CST’s willingness to use both is no laughing matter.
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