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Potential Change In Federal Driver’s License Laws

CSDL, Fri, 05/28/2010 - 03:00

Donald Kendall, Chairman
Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License

 
In February 2009, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano declared that she was working with the National Governor’s Association to repeal Title II of the REAL ID Act.
Her intent concerned me because the Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License (CSDL) strongly supports the driver’s license rules established by that law. Public Law 109-13 (Title II of the REAL ID Act) became law in large part because of a high level of effort by the founders of CSDL, and especially by Henry Buhl.
The REAL ID Act became federal law in 2005. As PL109-13, it placed into federal code the recommendations by the bipartisan National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission) that the federal government should set standards for identification documents. Since REAL ID’s regulations were issued in 2008, roughly half of the states have made significant upgrades to the driver licensing and issuance processes. Nine of these states met REAL ID interim benchmarks in 2009.
In June 2009, Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) introduced the Providing Additional Security for the States’ Identification Act (PASS ID Act) with Secretary Napolitano’s strong endorsement. The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee considered the PASS ID Act in a July legislative hearing. With the unanimous support of the Board of Directors, I sent a detailed letter to Senator Lieberman outlining our concerns about the bill.
Fortunately, when Senator Lieberman reported the amended version of PASS ID in October, it had been significantly improved. Aligning with CSDL objectives, the PASS ID Act would authorize $150 million for the states to verify birth records for driver’s license applicants. It will reduce state costs by authorizing the federal government to pay for state use of the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system and the Social Security Online Verification system. These systems respectively allow states to verify immigration document information and verify that Social Security Numbers presented by driver’s license applicants match their name and date of birth.
Because the PASS ID Act contains about a dozen provisions that would weaken current federal standards for driver’s license issuance, I believe it would weaken our homeland and national security, should the bill become law.
Given the current impasse in Congress, it is not certain that there will be floor time for the PASS ID Act to be considered by the Senate. I remain hopeful that if the PASS ID Act is actually brought to the floor of the Senate, it will be further amended to correct the remaining omissions and deficiencies that concern us. I am confident our Washington office will keep a watchful eye.
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