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New Hampshire may buck feds over national IDs
New Hampshire lawmakers are considering a proposal to reject a federal mandate for national identification standards.
The state House last month passed a measure, H.B. 1582, to refuse participation in a program created under a 2005 law that requires state-issued IDs to meet national standards by 2008. The New Hampshire proposal has been forwarded to the Senate for further consideration.
The Granite State would be the first to refuse to comply with the federal statute, which is known as the REAL ID Act. The California Senate last year passed a bill to block the use of radio-frequency identification chips in driver's licenses, which might be required by REAL ID regulations, but the measure since has stalled.
The lawmakers behind the New Hampshire proposal argue that the federal law effectively would establish a national ID system that would threaten civil liberties. They also have voiced concerns that the law is an unfunded mandate that places an unfair financial burden on states to comply.
But others are worried about the consequences of rejecting the federal statute. The Union Leader in Manchester, N.H., reported that at a Monday Senate committee hearing, several lawmakers voiced concern that state residents would be forced to use passports to board domestic airplane flights if REAL ID is rejected.
In written testimony submitted to the committee, Jim Harper, the director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, said it would be a grave mistake for New Hampshire lawmakers to stick with the REAL ID program out of fear that they would lose $3 million in federal grant money to comply with the law.
Harper cited a report released last year by a Virginia task force that estimated full compliance with REAL ID in the Old Dominion State would cost as much as $63 million per year. He also noted an estimate from the National Conference of State Legislatures that it would cost $9 billion for states to implement REAL ID nationally.
"Because it is one of the first states to be offered a token of federal support for REAL ID compliance, New Hampshire will be a national leader one way or another," he said. "It may set the standard for protection of freedom, civil liberties and privacy. Or it may become a premier example of how a state legislature becomes a servant of the federal government."
In a telephone interview, David Williams, the vice president of policy at Citizens Against Government Waste, said he hopes other states take notice and that New Hampshire will not be the one to "show up at the party." He doubts the federal government would require New Hampshire residents to use passports for domestic flights if the state's IDs fail to meet federal standards.
"This is fantastic news, and we hope that other states follow their lead," Williams said of the New Hampshire bill. "We also hope the federal government is listening to the people. Let's hope that this is the first domino that falls."
COMMENTS
- Did you know that through the REALID everyone in America (eventually) will be fingerprinted, databased, and "microchipped" with a Biometric RFID Microchip? All in the name of 9/11! Sure, these RFID chips aren't implanted yet..BUT they will be and submitting to even this one is taking the Mark of the Beast! These Biometric RFID Microchips were ALL started recently in the US under the Bush Administration through programs like REALID, TWIC, Enhanced Driver's Licenses, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST, and the list goes on and on...Also, every one of these programs makes you submit to a Biometric RFID Microchip with your right hand marks (fingerprints) on it and the Biometric RFID Microchip is EXACTLY LIKE a Verichip or a Somark tattoo! The ONLY difference between the Biometric RFID Microchisp the FEDs are making every American get and a Verichip or a Somark tattoo is that one is implanted and the other is not YET! They both can do all of one's buying and selling using right hand marks, forehead marks, the chip itslef, or the worldwide unique EPC number that comes with every microchip! So the Feds are violating every Christians' 1st Amendment Rights and their Title VII rights against Religious Discrimantion in employment, but what about the fact that they are fingerprinting all of us without cause, databsing those fingerprints, and programming those fingerprints onto a microchip that comes to life and speaks when scanned, dtababsing/tracking your every move!?!?!?!?! Can you saY AGAINST 4TH AND 9TH AMENDMENT RIGHTS BARIING UNREASONABLE SEARCHES AND SEIZURES!?!?!!?! HOW ABOUT INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY OR RIGHTS TO PRIVACY!?!?! If every person in America (all 350 million or so) has to be MICROCHIPPED AND TRACKED AND DATABASED because of what 19 people did to 300 people over 7 yeasr ago then New hampshire is 100% right! the terrorists have won!!!!!! realize you are all being forced by the SPP government or the Feds to take the Mark, Name, and Number of the Beast and then get out and fight it while we still have a US Constitution! i have to quit my job because I can't take the Microchip Mark of the Beast from the Feds... They just mandated it onto me even though it violates my Title VII, 1st Amendment, 4th Amendment, and so many other rights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wake up America!!!!! Pat Posted February 23, 2009 1:58 PM
- The ironic thing is that stuff like this goes on ALL the time. We just don't recognize it because it's ALWAYS rolled up in good sounding rationalizations... Did you know that car insurance isn't mandatory in NH if you over 21? Alex Hunter Posted May 16, 2007 11:59 AM
- Way to go New Hampshire! Stand fast and do not let the federal government with its "we know better than you" attitude buffalo you into this anti-civil liberties ID system. Fear and threats, that is what the last five years of Republican control has been about ... how do we make the sheep do as we say while maintaining the illusion of freedom and civil liberty? Those who would trade freedom for safety deserve and will have neither. Cracked & Wired Posted April 14, 2006 9:51 AM
