Rep. Davis: Real ID ‘not an unfunded mandate’

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) insisted today that the Real ID Act, which outlines standards for issuing new driver’s licenses, does not amount to an unfunded mandate, despite what state governments may say. (This story, by Brad Grimes, is from Government Computer News).

“States can do whatever they want,” Rep. Davis said. “It’s not an unfunded manadate in that sense. But if they want to use them as federal IDs, they must meet our standards.”

Perhaps Rep. Davis forgot that in order to fly in a commercial plane, we have to meet his standards. How many states cam ignore this mandate?

Michigan starts to wake up ...

The Detroit Free Press has an article titled: Federal ID law may send flood of work to state, county clerks. Michigan has been automating services so people can seek records or driver's license renewals over the phone, by mail or online. They now realize that RealID is going to terminate all this convenience, forcing 8 million people to bring in their ID documents.
Michigan has been doing a $30-million upgrade of its computer systems, and County Clerk Ruth Johnson believes the new technology for a combined ID card and passport could be incorporated into the upgrade. I believe she's in for a terrible shock, it won't be that simple.

"Any time we show our identifications at places from the bar to the bank, we risk both the government and private businesses having access to our private data," said Wendy Wagenheim, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.

A really bad idea: RealID required to Vote:

Greg Anrig, Jr. reports a suggestion by James Baker that people be required to show a RealID card in order to vote. Fortunately the courts have long protected the right to vote against unreasonable voting requirements, so this recommendation is unlikely to succeed. Let us hope. The same article quotes Sam Daschle's fine dissent.

In the first half of the 20th century, the vote was often denied to blacks by requiring them (but not whites) to pass various sorts of tests. My father, a civil rights lawyer, examined many of the actual "test results" as he fought these tests. In one case, a black was refused the right to vote due to "errors in spilling."

US Senator John Sununu opposes RealID.

The Boston Globe reports (see the sept 19th report on this page, fifth subhead) that US Senator John Sununu says he'll keep fighting the creation of a national identity card. The story notes that Sununu actually fought to keep the realID section out of the emergency spending bill for Iraq. Good for him!

An article at Washington Technology by Ethan Butterfield raises many thoughtful points, some of them new:

... states are waiting for the Homeland Security Department to issue guidance that they need before they can revise or overhaul their systems and processes, industry observers said. It could be several months, perhaps longer, before any guidelines are ready.

"I wouldn't expect proposed regulations until, at earliest, the end of the year," said Cheye Calvo, transportation committee director for the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver. "Final regulations, we may not see until the spring or next summer."

In other words, almost a whole year (of the three years) will be wasted before computer systems can be defined and planned. (It would be worse than foolish to spend money developing the computer and work flow systems without knowing what additional requirements (and redesign) Homeland Security will require.)

NCSL has suggested that the direct cost of implementing Real ID will be between $500 million and $700 million nationally. But that would only cover the new licenses and systems. The largest cost is likely to be in hiring more staff, training personnel and opening new offices, many of which were closed over the last decade as states realized the efficiencies of renewing licenses over the Internet. The final cost of Real ID is likely to be much higher, Calvo [of NCSL] said.

"Certainly, it's going to rise into the billions. I don't believe there is any question about that," he said.

"The question is: Can it be done in three years? Can it be done in 10 years?" Calvo said.

This is the first time I've seen discussion of the timetable, and whether it may take much longer to make this system work. A ten-year plan would be a dreadful idea, becuase all the technology available now will be completely outmoded by then!

The article disucsses the likelihood that HS will require biometric ID:

Facial biometrics would seem a logical security feature ... but other biometrics are available. ... State officials don't want DHS to choose one security solution for all states. They prefer trying different technologies with various business partners, Calvo said.

"The concern is if you have one way, a uniform way, it becomes very static, and it ceases to keep up with the innovations and the wrong-doers," he said. "The counterfeiters are innovating, so you need to have different technologies constantly emerging to deal with the problems."

I'm not impressed by the CDSL:

An article at arrivenet.com approvingly quotes the CDSL (Coalition for a Secure Driver's License), in favor of hurrying up and implementing RealID. The CDSL says:

Four years after terrorists used driver's licenses to plan and execute their attacks on American soil, and 14 months after the 9/11 Commission recommended uniform standards for their issuance, state-issued driver's licenses in America still can be obtained by persons whose identities cannot be verified and remain a national security threat. ... Driver's licenses are a proven terrorist tool ...

Frankly, I think the fact that driver's licenses have not been used for four years to perform a dastardly terrorist act shows that driver's licenses are not currently a terrorist tool! The CDSL also released a survey in showing that:

more than four out of five Americans (84 percent) would be willing to stand in line a few extra minutes or pay an extra dollar for a driver's license so that their identities can be authenticated. ...

"These survey results clearly show that Americans understand the danger driver's licenses pose in the wrong hands and their willingness to do their part to correct the problem," said CSDL President Amanda Bowman.

I suggest they redo their survey, and ask people if they are willing to stand in line an extra four hours, NOT renew by mail or over the web, and pay an extra $100 for their driver's license. That would be more realistic, and I'm genuinely curious what people would say.

Terrorists Seeking Asylum?

An Article at Immigration Daily by Walter A. Ewing and Benjamin Johnson of The Immigration Policy Center raises an interesting side issue:

The public debate surrounding passage of the REAL ID Act by the House of Representatives on February 10 has raised the question of whether or not the U.S. asylum system is vulnerable to infiltration by foreign terrorists. Sponsors of the legislation, which now moves to the Senate for consideration, claim the Act would enhance security by making it more difficult for asylum seekers to prove their cases.

The article discuses how our asylum system has been "gamed", and reforms that have been put in place. It seems to me that realID is unlikely to have much effect on people seeking asylum, since generally such people legitimately have weak documentation and would qualify before even trying to get RealID cards.

But the article focuses on something different:

Enormous backlogs and the incentive of work authorization – resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of asylum applications filed, as more and more weak or fraudulent claims were submitted by individuals who wanted to stay in the United States or obtain work authorization while their cases were lost in the backlog. In 1993, political and public attention was focused on these flaws in the asylum program when it was widely reported that Mir Aimal Kansi, who killed two CIA agents in front of the agency’s headquarters, and Ramzi Yousef, who was involved in the first World Trade Center bombing, had been allowed to remain in the United States while their applications for asylum were pending.

Subsequent reforms have cut the backlog, avoiding the situation where people remained a long time with pending cases. If asylum seekers were required to get RealID cards, backlog would likely increase again as the asylum seekers sought to prove more conclusively who they are.

An Identity Thief’s Dream:

Robert Gellman, in dmNews, has a thoughtful article (I'm linking to Part II here; this article will soon be part of dmNews's pay-to-see archives), on realID. He concentrates on the process of verifying identity and building a data base of scanned documents that will be an identity thief's dream.
I quoted Part I of Gellman's essay here. Quotes:

Don’t forget that you will need to get an ID for your grandmother who has Alzheimer’s and lives in a nursing home. That will be three times harder than getting your own. It doesn’t matter that she doesn’t drive anymore because the ID card may be needed for Medicare.

Though the act passed Congress easily, I don’t think the fight is over. This particular struggle between privacy and security has just started.

The law requires security, but we all know that even the best security isn’t foolproof. A DMV clerk in another state may provide copies of your documents to an identity thief who works overseas.