« The Dirty Dozen | Main | Questioning Obama »

REAL ID hold up

The REAL ID Act was supposed to go in to effect today, but many states have resisted the law, including Georgia:

The law set national standards for all state driver's licenses and other forms of photo identification. It directs states to store people's drivers license information in a database, along with additional identity information, like a digital copy of each person's birth certificate. The law mandates that all state databases are to be linked. By now, every state should have built this database and issued Real ID-compliant licenses to all residents.

But you don't need to worry about these new ID's. The law has yet to go into effect.

Little about Real ID has gone as planned. All 50 states, and the District of Columbia, were given extensions by the Dept. of Homeland Security to comply with Real ID. This extension was given despite the fact that 17 states passed resolutions saying they have no intention of ever implementing the program.
[...]
To develop secure databases and issue new licenses, homeland security now estimates that Real ID implementation will cost $3.9 billion. Sensenbrunner's original estimate was $100 million, and so far homeland security has issued just $79.8 million in grants. Congress and the administration are reluctant, however, to make up the difference.

Part of the reason is that many state legislatures have made clear to Washington that they reject Real ID on principle. On the basis of state's right and privacy concerns, 17 states have officially announced they won't comply with Real ID, even if the money were available.

The REAL ID is bad for a number of reasons. It's expensive and it's threatens personal privacy due to increasing government databases and on Tenth Amendment grounds. Not to mention it was tacked on to a spending bill for troops.

The immigration reform bill that was so hotly debated last year contained provisions dealing with the REAL ID , such as state-to-state passenger travel. If your state did not comply to REAL ID standards, you would not be able to travel to another state.

H/T: Cato @ Liberty

Post a comment