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Making REAL ID a Reality Panel - Quotes

csdl_admin, Fri, 06/24/2011 - 09:03

Quotes from Representative Sensenbrenner taken from the June 22, 2011 CSDL and Heritage Panel, Making REAL ID a Reality (see video):
 
 
Quotes about why the REAL ID Act was needed:
 
“I am the author of REAL ID and its defender against the urban myths of the Internet. I’m going to explain what the purpose of the REAL ID Act is, what it does and what it doesn’t do.”
 
“The 9/11 Commission found that the hijackers had at least 30 pieces of identification, some obtained fraudulently, some multiple driver’s licenses issued by several states. As a result of that, they were able to evade any type of consequences for traffic citations that they may have obtained. As a result, if they got stopped a second time by police they would pull out another driver’s license… and were found to have been clean.”
“The terrorists were able to exploit holes in our driver’s license system.”
 
“Most of us use driver’s licenses for ID, most of us use it as a breeder document, in that you can use a driver’s license to get other kinds of ID, whether (it is) issued by government or whether issued by a private institution.”
 
“Also there have been people who aren’t terrorists who have been gaming the system. Because if you get up to one point short of losing your license because of multiple convictions, you can simply hop across the border to another state, use your cousin’s address, and get a brand new, point-free driver’s license which you can whip out the next time you are stopped by a police officer. Something had to be done to address this vulnerability.”
 
What the Real ID Act requires of the states:
 
“Real ID does two things: First of all, it says one driver’s license per person. The second thing is that there is no (REAL ID Act compliant) driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. “
 
“And one of the provisions of the Real ID Act is that if you are here on a visa that expires in 6 months, you don’t get a 6-year or an 8-year driver’s license… these are people who have entered the United States legally and who are overstaying their visa.”
 
“You have to prove your identity and legal presence in the United States when you apply for or renew a driver’s license.”
 
“The states have to put stronger security in their licenses in order to reduce counterfeiting.”
 
“The states have got to provide instruction to DMV employees to spot counterfeit documentation and also to have background checks to make sure that a corrupted DMV employee is not in cahoots with terrorists to issue driver’s licenses to people who should not get them.”
 
“What does Real ID not do? It does not establish a national database… all it requires is that when someone applies for a driver’s license, the DMV of the application state has got to check with other state DMVs to make sure that somebody does not get two driver’s licenses, just like we’ve done for commercial driver’s licenses. “
 
“It is not an unfunded mandate…. The governors association said it would cost 12 billion dollars to comply with the Real ID law. In fact, it’s cost about 300 million dollars which have been covered by grants by the federal government to help the states comply.”
 
“It (the REAL ID Act) is not an assault on federalism. It is voluntary for states to comply with Real ID.”
 
“Real ID is a good law. It has been slow to being implemented but I would think that within the next couple of years there will be at least 40 states that meet the minimum standards on Real ID. And we have to keep pressuring governors and state legislators to do it because it is in the interests of their citizens that their driver’s licenses be used for federal purposes rather than forcing them to go up and get another.”
 
 
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