GovernmentExecutive.com

The final rules for stricter driver's licensing standards are being reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget and are not due to go public until March. But the director of the so-called REAL ID program at the Department of Homeland Security offered a few hints on the timetable Thursday as he spoke to technology executives in McLean, Va.

Darrell Williams said OMB officially received the rules Tuesday and has 90 days to respond and another 60 days before the rules could be implemented.

Williams said Homeland Security has worked closely with OMB to show the changes made in response to 21,000 comments from states. He said because the department essentially did a lot of the homework, OMB may finish its review in less than 90 days.

Williams said the 21,000 comments from states included substantive complaints about the cost of implementing the program in less than four years.

Marshall Rickert, a former leader of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, said the problem is that most of the adult U.S. population would have to visit state Department of Motor Vehicle offices to get new licenses within three-and-a-half years, and the infrastructure to handle that does not exist.

The normal cycle to replace a driver's license in person varies among states from five to 10 years. Rickert said motor-vehicle administrators have heard that the new deadlines "will be linked to the regular cycles, so the biggest cost-driver is gone."

Rickert said original estimates of state costs to comply with the largely unfunded federal REAL ID mandate were as high as $11.5 billion, with driver's license fees for customers as high as $150. He said the biggest cost would be building offices to accommodate customers.

"We really took the comments seriously and then looked at the latitude DHS had to make changes," Williams said. But he declined to confirm what the final rule would be on that issue.

He did answer some questions that technology executives had over how and when the states would be looking to contractors to help implement REAL ID.

Williams said Homeland Security compliance audits likely would be done by outside contractors, and Rickert added that innovators could help states regain productivity lost by offices having to deal with customers in person instead of online.

In 2006, Congress approved $40 million to help offset state costs for REAL ID, and more funding is up for a vote this year. So far, $7 million has been allocated to a pilot project in Kentucky that electronically verifies vital records.

Williams said he is working with OMB "to detach release of funding to release of the bill." He said if that happens, he expects states would have access to funds before Christmas. He did caution that there are groups lobbying Congress to remove the $50 million for REAL ID now attached to a military operations appropriations bill.

COMMENTS

• Not to sound like a psychotic paranoid maniac like our uh....FOUNDING FATHERS...but ID's with finger print+DNA+ yadda yadda yadda or implanted chips will allow the government to silence dissent should the "need" ever arise. Havent we learned, visa a vis the Patriot Act, that when our government wants it will invade what we consider to be protected information about us for their own purpose. Why are all these people so willing to give up their rights to privacy for a false sense of security? You know when you trade one for the other you get neither. Drivers licenses to illegals should be a federal crime though, i mean isn't that considered aiding a criminal? Lets address the REAL issues without being herded like cattle into the slaughter house. Valek Posted December 3, 2007 10:23 AM
• I would disagree with enact of the Real ID act. This would be a national id that is similar to the papers that was required to move about in Germany. In my opinion, a bad idea and a high potential for abuse by the government. JP Posted December 3, 2007 10:08 AM
• IN PA, in order to get a driver's license, you have to go to a PA Department of Transportation photo center with your application which you get via snail mail and your old photo driver's license. The only reason I can see for more extensive info is it can be a money making plan for the states, contractors, and more intrusion by government into our personal lives. Enough is enough, if you already have my picture on a card and I, in person look completely different, then My license should be rescinded unless I can show documentation that my facilal features are different due to an accident or various diseases. Mark R. Hoch Posted December 3, 2007 8:09 AM