States are currently engaged in a revolt against the Real ID Act.  Seven states – Georgia, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington – received a waiver from DHS postponing any required state action until the end of 2009 at the earliest, despite having enacted binding legislation prohibiting participation in the Real ID program.  Eleven additional states that received waivers made it clear in their correspondence with DHS that they were still weighing their options and could not commit to implementing Real ID.  Legislatures in other states, such as Alaska, Arizona, Idaho and Minnesota, are nearing final passage of legislation that, if signed, will similarly prevent their states from implementing Real ID.

The result of this unprecedented state rebellion is clear - this failed program does not merit further funding.  In 2005, $40 million was appropriated to states for Real ID implementation.  To date, of that amount, only $6 million has been provided in grants, and only $3 million was accepted by one state: Kentucky.  New Hampshire was offered federal funding, but wisely rejected it, knowing that the acceptance of those funds would obligate New Hampshire to spend vast additional sums raised solely from new state taxes. 

Even substantial appropriations by Congress will not alleviate the burdens of Real ID Act implementation.  The real fiscal cost of implementing the program will be borne by individuals through the imposition of new state taxes and licensing fee increases.  Real ID will also lead to routine invasions of drivers’ privacy.  Finally, Real ID embodies the worst excesses of bureaucratic government, and will lead inexorably to substantially longer wait and service times at DMVs, and increased headaches as individuals fight bureaucracies trying to obtain new source documents needed to get a Real ID.

Real ID imposes the United States’ first-ever national identity card system.  A national ID will result in a dramatic change in American life, in which law-abiding citizens’ movements are constrained by the need for an “internal passport.”  Finally, legal requirements to expand the use of Real ID have already been proposed in a host of areas, from voting to purchasing medication.  If those requirements are enacted, the Real ID database will become a de facto requirement for participation in American life.  Errors at the DMV could affect an individual’s ability to get a job, receive medical benefits, vote or participate in civic life. 

Real ID diminishes security; it does not enhance it.  The increase in ID theft and document fraud will also make it easier for sophisticated criminals and terrorists to obtain the identity of another person and pass themselves off as that person.  The aggregation of the data and the source documents thus opens a substantial security loophole.  This loophole is exactly contrary to the intent of the 9/11 Commission. 

Finally, DHS’s actions belie its comments that Real ID is a security imperative.  DHS’s own Final Rule outlining the plan states must follow to implement Real ID does not require even the first Real ID-compliant driver’s license to be issued until 2014, and will not require full implementation until 2017.  We fail to see how Real ID funding can be critical now for a program that DHS itself believes is not essential until the end of the next decade. 

The states have spoken and they want Real ID repealed or rethought, not funded. Funding this program now would be premature at best.  For the above reasons, we urge you to oppose funding for the unworkable Real ID Act.

Sincerely,

American Civil Liberties Union
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations
American Immigration Lawyers Association
American Library Association
American Policy Center
American Right to Privacy
Americans for Democratic Action, Inc.
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Asian American Justice Center
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Baton Rouge
Center for Democracy and Technology
Citizen Outreach Project
Congressman Bob Barr
Consumer Action
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
Cyber Privacy Project
Defending Dissent Foundation
Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action
DownsizeDC.org, Inc
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Equal Justice Alliance
Fairfax County Privacy Council
Farm Labor Organizing Committee
FreedomWorks
Gun Owners of America
Hate Free Zone
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
International Friendship Center
Justice Through Music
Korean American Resource & Cultural Center, Chicago
Korean Resource Center, Los Angeles
Labor Council For Latin American Advancement, Massachusetts Chapter
Latin Americans for Social & Economic Development
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
League of Women Voters of the U.S.
Legal Momentum
Liberty Coalition
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
MIRA Coalition
The Multiracial Activist
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Employment Law Project
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund
National Immigration Law Center
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium
National Workrights Institute  
OCA
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
People For the American Way
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Privacy Rights Now Coalition
Privacy Times
Reason Foundation
Republican Liberty Caucus
The Rutherford Institute
Service Employees International Union
U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation
Velvet Revolution
YKASEC – Empowering the Korean American Community