The Wall Street Journal-20080112-Politics - Economics- New Driver-s License Rules Are Issued
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Politics & Economics: New Driver's License Rules Are Issued
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security released regulations Friday that may mute the states' opposition to driver's- license security requirements under the Real ID law but aren't likely to satisfy civil-liberties groups and others that see the license as a first step toward a national identification card.
The new regulations give the states until 2014 to issue tamper-proof licenses to drivers born after 1964, and the rules give them until 2017 -- a nine-year extension -- for drivers born before 1964. That longer phase-in will cut states' costs to $3.9 billion, or $8 per license, from an earlier $14 billion, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview.
The licenses will include a digital photograph and a filament or some other security device that counterfeiters can't reproduce, but not a controversial radio-controlled computer chip, Mr. Chertoff said. States will be required to verify each applicant's personal information, including his or her legal status in the country, by comparing it against federal Social Security and passport databases, or against state vital-statistics databases.
State workers will "ping" those databases for specific information but won't have open access to them, a concern among civil libertarians, he said.
The regulations may satisfy many states' complaints that the new licenses are a costly burden, but Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) immediately announced he would push legislation to strip the driver's license provisions from Real ID, which also addresses broader security issues. "It is difficult to think this is anything but the first, big step toward a national identification card that so many Americans oppose," Mr. Leahy said in a statement.
But Mr. Chertoff disputed that. "Most people accept that you need to identify yourself," he said, and "I see no argument in favor of making it easier to pony up fake identity."
Congress passed Real ID in 2005 in response to security concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but it also is central to any administration attempts to exclude illegal immigrants from the work force. Federal law requires employers to ask new hires for proof of their legal status and allows them to accept a driver's license or a state-issued identification card that is Real ID-compliant. But current licenses are easily forged. That has enabled millions of illegal immigrants to get jobs and, in turn, has fueled public anger that is playing out in the presidential campaign.
States have rebelled, saying the federal plan would require them to reissue and verify the information on millions of licenses. The National Conference of State Legislatures says that legislators in 29 states have introduced bills refusing to comply, and that legislation has passed in six states including New Hampshire, which calls Real ID "repugnant" to the state and U.S. constitutions.
Opponents also argue that federal databases, and especially Social Security, are full of errors and out-of-date information that could deny lawful residents their right to a driver's license.
Mr. Chertoff said states "have been coming aboard" since their complaints about the cost and speed of the program have been addressed. But Homeland Security also has let the states know that licenses from states that opt out of Real ID won't be accepted as identification from anyone wanting to fly on or enter a commercial aircraft beginning this spring.
