Proponents say the act, which will essentially turn state driver's licenses into a Homeland Security national identification card, is necessary to combat terrorism.
Opponents click off a long list of problems, including invasion of privacy, increased risk of identity theft and a huge cost to state governments to issue and administer the licenses, as reasons Congress should be forced to reconsider the act.
“First, it's dangerous when laws are passed without congressional deliberations,” said Scott Crichton, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana. “People need to be represented when laws are passed.”
Sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the Real ID Act passed the House largely along party lines by a vote of 261-161, but then was attached to a “must-pass” bill in the Senate that provided continued funding for the war in Iraq as well as money for tsunami relief.
That passed unanimously, without any hearings or debate on the Real ID Act.
The ACLU is joined by a wide variety of organizations - from Gun Owners of America and the National Governors Association, to the American Conservative Union and the National Organization of Women - that oppose the act.
States do have the option of not complying, but the federal government could then bar its citizens from everything from flying on commercial flights, to opening bank accounts, to entering government buildings.
“One state not going along probably wouldn't do anything,” Crichton said Friday. “But many of them could force Congress to take another look. We're hoping Montana will take the lead. This is not only an unfunded mandate, it's an idea that's half-baked and needs to be sent back for scrutiny.”
The Montana Department of Motor Vehicles estimates the Real ID Act would cost Montana taxpayers between $2.2 million and $2.6 million to implement, according to the ACLU.
Nationally, the bill to state governments could total between $9.1 billion and $12.8 billion.
The new driver's licenses would contain some form of biometric identifier, be it an eye scan, fingerprint or some sort of face-recognition technology.
They would have a “machine-readable zone” Crichton worries could allow commercial entities to capture private information.
The data on the licenses would be standardized from coast to coast, and connected by a 50-state, interlinked database that would make every American citizen's file available to other states and the federal government.
People would have to provide several documents, including birth certificates, to prove who they are when applying for licenses, and state DMVs would be responsible for verifying the documents' authenticity.
“American citizens have the right to know who is in their country, that people are who they say they are, and that the name on the driver's license is the real holder's name, not some alias,” the bill's sponsor, Sensenbrenner, has said.
“If these common-sense reforms had been in place in 2001, they would have hindered the efforts of the 9/11 terrorists, and they will go a long way toward helping us prevent another tragedy like 9/11,” said Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
“Real ID not only means a national ID card and a centralized nationwide government database,” Crichton countered Friday. “Practically speaking, it will mean higher taxes and fees, longer lines, repeat visits to the DMV, bureaucratic snafus and, for a lot of people, the inability to obtain a license.”
His final argument: “It will do little if anything to prevent terrorism.”
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 523-5260 or vdevlin@missoulian.com
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