Real ID

The Real ID Act is going to pass the senate, and thus congress today. This bill creates an unfunded mandate which forces states to turn there drivers licenses into national ID cards. It is going to pass because it is attached to the bill which fund the troops in Iraq, and Tsunami relief

The states are required to make the cards follow a particular technical specification -- for easy electronic reading, to link the databases across the country and to include whatever information the Department of Homeland Security wants. This is going to be a large technical challenge and an expensive project whose funding comes out of the state coffers.

More worrisome is that this bill has not once been debated in the senate, much less in the public. Creating a National ID, particularly one that proves residency status something as this does (new DL's will require Birth Cert., SS# and proof of residency), with no debate is an incredibly bad idea. Particularly under the guise of national security. ID's do not ID terrorists - the more likely scenario is that it will make illegal immigration a tiny bit harder. And the tracking of your life by the gov., but also by private industry much, much easier.

This is a bad bill, and although you can't stop it from being passed you should still go to the EFF and fax your senators. This should not stand as it does, and it can still be gutted in a number of ways, even after it passes.

As a side note:
Another section of this bill also contains a call out to Article 3, Section 2 of the Constitution - which may allow congress to pass laws forbidding the courts from looking at the law. As this massively violates the checks and balances, no previous congress has tried this out. Looks like this one will. And all so the Border control can flattens some federally protected wetlands. Ugly

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