There was a recent article
in the N & O on the Real ID Act. This federal law would
require (for all practical purposes) states to develop ID cards that
meet stringent, standardized requirements, and in addition, the states
would have to interconnect with other state databases containing
personal information on citizens.
As of now, states have to
comply with this federal mandate by May of 2008. The proposed
regulations implementing the statute could grant extensions. Many
concerns have been expressed about the law, including the fact that it
is a massive unfunded mandate on states. In the March 9. 2007 notice
of proposed rulemaking, the Department of Homeland Security estimated
that it would cost $17 billion over a ten-year period to implement the
law.
If a state does not comply with the law, then the
federal government will not recognize any driver’s licenses issued by
that state. For example, if a North Carolinian wanted to board an
airplane, that individual couldn’t board because the state is not
meeting the REAL ID requirements. For all practical purposes,
this isn’t a voluntary law.
On the issue of whether this is a
national database, it is true that there is not one single database run
by the federal government. However, when all the states have to
interconnect their databases and can access data from these databases
(I also believe the federal government would have access as well), this
is the same exact thing as a national database.
There are many
security issues of course that the bill is attempting to address–below
are some links that discuss the security benefits (or lack thereof) of
the law, along with many other issues:
– This Department of Homeland Security web page has helpful information on the Real ID Act.
– On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the REAL ID Act. The testimony and webcast can be found here.
