Posted on 08/04/2010 6:03:29 PM PDT by jazusamo
Like it or not — and many in the Obama administration don't — Real ID is coming to a driver's license near you.
Having failed to get Congress to revise the tough new security rules for state-issued licenses in the Real ID Act, the Department of Homeland Security says it is working out how to implement the law.
But critics fear Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano plans to gut the intent of the legislation's authors.
There is broad agreement among those following the issue on Capitol Hill and in statehouses across the country that Pass ID, the legislative alternative to Real ID that the Obama administration was pushing last year, is dead in the water.
"Pass ID is not moving forward," David Quam, director of federal relations for the National Governors Association, told The Washington Times.
"Although [Homeland Security] is still working with Congress on a comprehensive solution that allows cost savings and flexibility to the states, we are obligated to continue moving ahead with efforts to improve the standards for state-issued driver's licenses and identification under the REAL ID framework pending any legislative changes by Congress," Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa told The Times in an e-mail.
The Real ID Act grew out of a recommendation from the Sept. 11 commission that driver's licenses needed to be more secure and harder to obtain for terrorists and other malefactors. Despite being in the country illegally, all but one of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 had driver's licenses or other state-issued ID cards that they used to rent cars and apartments, and ultimately to board the planes they commandeered.
Several terrorist plots foiled in the United States since then have been attempted by people who also had managed to get driver's licenses, despite having overstayed their visas.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
If you don't think it is important, your in real trouble.
Revelation-
(16)And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
(17)And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Patriot Act sure has the terrorist under control. sarc.
The Real ID was a heavy handed prescription ! At least the requirement that states had to sign the Driver License Agreement didn’t survive the final bill where states had to open their databases not only to other states but also Canada and Mexico as a start !
“the Real ID Act says licenses that do not comply with its standards will not be usable for “federal purposes” — like boarding a plane or entering a federal building.”
LOL ... That’s the downside??? Heck, I’d gladly skip ever boarding a commercial plane if they promised to never let me enter a Federal building.
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