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Benefits of a Secure License
- Helps Prevent Identity Theft
- Reduces Underage Drinking and Driving
- Keeps Drunk Drivers off the Road
- Combats Welfare and Medicare Theft
- Reduces Voter Fraud
- Cracks Down on Dead Beat Dads
- Helps Protect Americans from Terrorist Attacks
Real ID Act
An Act Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, and for other purposes.
Article Archive
- New York State Update
- New Initiative to Stop Meth Precursor Sales
- State lawmakers circulate letter to colleagues asking for REAL ID support based on police officer safety benefits.
- Secretary Michael Chertoff at the National Conference of State Legislatures, August 8, 2007
- 9/11 group urges governor not to “license terrorists”
FAQ
1. Aren't you proposing a "national" ID card?
No. In fact, what we propose likely would preclude the need for a national ID card. Driver's licenses have been the de facto identification card in America for years. But because of that, they must be more tightly regulated to prevent terrorists for getting them-and using them-again.
2. Isn't this a threat to privacy?
No. It simply would allow states to know that those they are licensing are, indeed, who they say they are, and that they are living in this country lawfully. A secure driver's license would, in fact, crack down on privacy threats by making identity theft more difficult. As thousands of Americans have learned, the worst threat to one's privacy is someone passing himself off as another to steal personal and financial data.
3. What are biometrics?
The Coalition believes that biometric identifiers are a key to a secure driver's license. This can come in the form of simple facial scan, otherwise knownas a digital photograph. Many states already use tamper proof bio-metric photographs, which also are used on all American passports. They ensure that lost or stolen licenses cannot be used by anyone else. (This also would crack down on underage drinking.)
4. What should the federal government do?
America is only as secure as its weakest link state. An Illinois or New Mexico license in the hands of a terrorist is as dangerous to New Yorkers or Washingtonians as it is to residents of Chicago or Albuquerque. 9/11 proved that: al Quaeda used Virginia and Florida licenses to board planes in Boston and Newark.
Consequently, the Coalition believes that the best way to accomplish its goal is through national standards for driver's licenses-uniform identification requirements applicants would have to meet before being licensed in any state. Individual states would continue to license its drivers, but they would have to meet those national standards.
The 9/11 Commission recommended this in its report to Congress, as has outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
5. What about individual states?
Several states, including Florida and Virginia, tightened their driver licensing requirements shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Other states, inexplicably, have made theirs more lax. Every state legislature in America has a responsibility to take measures to keep licenses out of the hands of terrorists. But until all 50 states begin issuing secure driver's licenses, every state remains at risk.