Real ID, Pass ID and a National ID Card

By John Ballard

Radio blogging here.
NPR ran a story Monday about Real ID, a form of national identification I had never heard of, despite the fact that legislation was introduced in 2005 mandating that states get their acts together to meet federal requirements for identification.

Less than four weeks from now, by the close of 2009, states must be in compliance with the Real ID Act, which sets new and tighter standards for issuing driver's licenses. But some three dozen states have yet to put the new requirements in place.

In fact, the Department of Homeland Security says no state will be in full compliance by the end of the year. Without that compliance, travelers might face long lines at airport security checkpoints if they can't use their licenses as identification.

Act Has Sept. 11 Roots

The Real ID Act was approved in 2005 to address one of the concerns of the 9/11 Commission: that driver's licenses were too easy to obtain.

The law set up some exacting standards for licenses. Applicants would be required to submit birth certificates and states would have to verify them. And an applicant's immigration status would have to be validated.

But states have long had problems with Real ID. There's the cost � some $ 4 billion, most of which states have to find themselves.

And states say some of the standards are impossible to meet. For example, no database exists on a national level to check birth certificates. Nor are the states able to share driver's records with each other, something else Real ID requires.

States Resist Compliance

"States have argued about Real ID since its inception," says David Quam of the National Governors Association, "that this cannot be done, that it's too costly and that it mandates too many specifics. We can do it better."

In fact, 13 states have passed laws prohibiting full compliance with the Real ID Act on the basis of cost or privacy issues.

Doing it better, as far as the states are concerned, means an alternative piece of legislation, called Pass ID. It's like Real ID but with some key differences. Birth certificates wouldn't have to be electronically verified. And there would be federal funds to help states pay for the changes.

Pass ID has been approved by a Senate panel but has not yet made to the floor, and with health care taking up the Senate's time, the prospects for Pass ID appear dim in the coming weeks. At a hearing last week, Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico pleaded with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to extend the Dec. 31 deadline.

"The uncertainty surrounding what your department may or may not do if the legislation is not signed into law is creating confusion for people in the states that are not in compliance," he said. "This is causing a great deal of anxiety with constituents who are seeing news reports they'll need a passport in order to travel on a commercial airline in the U.S. after the first of the year."

Okay then.

We have legislation in the pipeline that would clean up a national disgrace, no uniform way to identify who we are. And the issue appears to be more radioactive than FOCA, DOMA, or DADT.

To make matters worse, the head of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, is not in favor of the legislation either.

Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona, is sympathetic to opponents of Real ID. In fact, she used to be one herself. But she says waiving the law's requirements, as was done last year, is the wrong way to go.

"One of the reasons we had Real ID and now, Pass ID, is because the 9/11 Commission had a recommendation that we improve the security quality of driver's licenses. And because Real ID has been rejected by the states, just by granting extension after extension after extension, we're not getting to the pathway of more secure driver's licenses."

Under the current provisions of Real ID, travelers from states not in compliance with the law would, among other things, not be able to use their driver's licenses as IDs to board commercial flights. That would cause massive travel disruptions during the holiday season, requiring additional screening of virtually all travelers. No one expects that to happen. But like Napolitano, the governors want to see the new law approved, rather than once again extending Real ID's deadline.

"It appears it could be extended again, but really, you're putting a Band-Aid on a pretty big open wound," Quam says. "What the governors have said for a long time is, you need to change the law � the law is flawed."

This where I stop preaching reporting and go to meddling.

I can't tell from the quote if Napolitano has any substantive objections or if she's against it simply because so many states are not in compliance. My guess is that unless it starts to get national attention it's a sleeping dog she would rather not awaken. When in doubt resort to Washingtonspeak.

There may be real "flaws" in the proposal but the real reason it can't get any traction is political, not technical. There is in America an embedded national paranoia about any form of national ID system going all the way back to the days of the Red Scare and Big Brother. 

Can there be anyone left who cannot see the need for a national ID card?

Surely not, although I have heard fears all my life about invasion of privacy, erosion of states rights and the biggest threat of them all, a Communist takeover of America.

This one's a no-brainer. Voting glitches and inconsistencies all over the country were as much an embarrassment in the technological era as our health care system.

How much longer do we have to continue avoidable confusion about identification because there is not enough political will to demand a national ID card once and for all?

We have passports.

We have state ID cards.

We have corporate ID cards.

We have school ID cards.

We have a raft of ID cards for immigrants (even though they are easily and widely counterfeited and almost never used by employers).

But I looked at my Social Security card and it clearly says "For Social Security purposes only. Not for identification."


Sheesh!

How long, as they say, do we keep doing the same thing before we figure out it isn't working?

Credit card companies keep incredible amounts of data on us. Every time I put gas in my car I wonder why none of those little numbers on my credit card gets messed up so I don't get the bill. But every time they find their way on to my monthly statement. This has been going on for decades and they still haven't made a mistake like that!

Three national credit reporting agencies keep an eye on everyone dealing with credit, although they don't let anyone see without charging them a fee. Consequently they have lots of wrong stuff that most of us never know about unless we take steps to investigate. But that is not the point. The point is that information and identification of everybody is already out there, even when the details are sometimes wrong.

Know what's interesting?
Most of the people complaining about "illegal immigrants" are the same ones opposing a national ID card (while overlooking the privacy and abuse of power enshrined in the Patriot Act). How else might citizens document their citizenship? Go figure.

This won't be a big story yet, any more than the government will run out of money. Congress, as usual, will muddle through at the last minute to pass legislation insuring that airline passenters are not inconvenienced any worse than they already will be thanks to the TSA Operations Manual's being published on line.

My wife and I went to the local county records office today to get a certified birth certificate for one of our grandchildren.No one in the office knew anything about "Real ID." One lady said she would look into it, but no one seemed particularly intersted. That's how much traction the idea has at the moment.

Anyone who thinks their personal affairs are private is living in a fool's paradise. Insurance databases, credit reporting agencies and public records have more information about you than you ever thought possible. And in the era of 3G communication the data can be swiftly and efficiently collected, sorted and transmitted anywhere.

The time is long past when Americans should be able to present a national ID card if they choose, with biometric features (smart chip, fingerprint, eye color, other) that is state of the art. Anyone feeling prissy about the idea better steer clear of Britain because for Americans who plan to be in the UK over 90 days they will be obligatory.