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States moving to implement ID card requirements

National Journal's Technology Daily March 5, 2007

A senior official at the Homeland Security Department said Monday that he expects as many as 10 states will be compliant by May 2008 with rules mandating nationwide standards for driver's licenses and identification cards.

Assistant Secretary for Policy Development Richard Barth said at the National Association of Attorneys General's winter meeting that although he expects several states will be able to begin issuing licenses compliant with the so-called REAL ID Act by that original deadline, the department prepared for difficulties that states may encounter by offering them until the end of 2009 to begin distributing compliant licenses and ID documents.

All states must finish replacing non-compliant licenses by 2013, a task the department estimated last week will cost as much as $23 billion. More than dozen states are considering legislation to reject REAL ID amid concerns about its cost and how it will affect civil liberties.

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  • A Taxper and a Federal Worker made a very good point regarding illegal infiltrators getting licenses! But the core issue is not just money, but reality. For those worried about national ID's, it's too late anyway. Everyone (except hermits) carries some photo ID, is in multiple data bases, and gets cash from little “beg-a-buck” machines in public places. While the Constitution was constructed to limit abuses of the State against individuals, times were far different then. Not only is the horse out the barn door regarding privacy, but he's halfway around the track. States rights regarding the federal government changed drastically after the Civil War, accept it and try to limit federal abuse, that's all. GovExec.com reader Posted March 7, 2007 5:55 AM
  • Yet another unfunded mandate. I hope my state has the sense to bill the cost for this program back to King George. GovExec.com reader Posted March 7, 2007 5:36 AM
  • Why does it matter if States are compliant in how an ID looks, when many states want to give them to criminal aliens, aka "illegal immigrants," also known by our duly elected officials as 'undocumented workers.' Why pretend that these impotent actions by the President and Congress actually mean anything? a taxpayer and a federal work Posted March 6, 2007 9:29 AM
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