DHS Extends Real ID Deadline, but Funding and Privacy Questions Remain

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Mar 3, 2008, By Chad Vander Veen

After nearly three years of leaving states to twist in the wind, the Department of Homeland Security released the final regulations for Real ID. The Real ID Act, which became law in 2005, mandates national standards for the issuance of state drivers' licenses. Among the many criticisms leveled at the legislation was the fact that it was passed without having a complete set of rules dictating the details of how, exactly, states were supposed to comply with the law.

On Jan. 11, 2008 -- just 120 days before the law's original compliance deadline -- the DHS issued its final rule on Real ID. The 300-page document pushed back the compliance deadline to 2014 for states working to implement Real ID, and it relaxed the deadline even further -- to 2017 -- for drivers over age 50. But according to several observers, the new rule does little to ease funding and privacy concerns that have prompted numerous states to refuse to comply with the Real ID requirements.

Troubled History

Government Technology first reported on Real ID shortly after President George W. Bush signed it into law in 2005. We revisited the issue in 2007 due to a growing uproar within the states over the DHS's failure to provide clear details about how states were to issue new drivers' licenses. Also high on the list of states' concerns was the glaring omission of federal funds to help pay for what is estimated to be a multi-billion dollar undertaking.

The Real ID Act, according to its authors and supporters, is intended to establish a set of national standards for drivers' licenses to prevent terrorism and reduce security breaches and identity theft. The law came under immediate fire for the aforementioned issues as well as for requiring license-holder information to be available to all 50 states. This, according to critics, amounts to the creation of a national database of citizen information, which many believe is a privacy disaster in the making. Moreover, many opponents decry Real ID as a subversive attempt to establish a system of national ID cards.

Originally states had to comply with Real ID by May 11, 2008. However, by mid-2006, DHS had yet to define the technologies states needed to implement and no funding had been secured. In response, a number of states passed resolutions -- some even passed binding legislation -- to opt out of participation in Real ID -- this despite the fact that without a Real ID-compliant license, a citizen could not enter a federal building or board an aircraft. The revolt prompted DHS to push back the deadlines for deployment and, instead of a "drop-dead" date for implementation, DHS added a rollout window of several years, beginning Dec. 31, 2009 and lasting through 2011.

With the open revolt among states ongoing, many close to the issue hope the latest announcement will help restore order.

"We are still sifting through them to see how they compare with what we've asked for and what kind of changes the department has made," said Jeremy Meadows, senior committee director for the National Conference of State Legislatures' (NCSL) Standing Committee on Economic Development, Trade and Cultural Affairs. "Generally speaking, it does look like they listened. There are some changes we think are very favorable, such as the additional time for re-enrollment and not requiring states to utilize verification systems until they're actually operational."

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Comments

DHS Extends Real ID Deadline, but Funding and Privacy Questions Remain
By ken sachs ken on Mar 18, 2008

Mr. Vander Veen: Your march story about Real I D should have been labeled as an editorial. The simple fact is the, in the case of Real ID it is better Never then Ever. Drivers license were never meant to be used as a form of ID. They were, in fact, originally just a tax, like the vehicle license. My mother never took any kind of test to get her first one. Or went through any kind of ID verification. She just sent in her 50 cents, in stamps, to the Illinois Secretary of State and got her license back in a week. She never took any kind of competency test until after WWII, by which time she had driven to both coasts twice. The fatal flaw in the Real ID Act is the assumption that all American Citizens have a drivers license or state ID. This is just not true. A sizeable percentage of NYC residents do not. They have no need. They have a pretty good public transportation system instead. The same is true in Chicago. And these are not undocumented, or inner city, or even just poor, people. For instance, although we are fringe suburban dwellers, my wife and I both have dedicated urban family members in Chicago. Cousins in their 40's, 50's, and 60's and nephews and nieces in their teens to 30's. I can think of at least 8 that do not drive. They have no need. On my family side, we can document fighters on both sides of the Revolutionary War. My wife has a certified copy of her grandfathers papers from Ellis Island listing her father as one of his children. Although two of these relatives do have Passports and fly to Europe often, and thus have Illinois ID cards, most of them will never fly anywhere and would enter a Federally owned building only in handcuffs. But they are long standing, law abiding, voting, American Citizens. These are admittedly, in the eyes of DHS, worse case scenarios. But they are more common then DHS wants to admit, and laws have to be written assuming worse case scenarios. All the requirements for the Real ID Act are for the Federal Governments use. The Federal Government already has in place an ID system for it's own use. All they have to do is budget for the adoption of their own requirements and issue Federal ID's to those American Citizens that have a need for them.