Grover Norquist's Letter to Congressman Sensenbrenner Expressing Deep Concerns Regarding H.R. 10 and S. 2845

The Honorable James Sensenbrenner
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Sensenbrenner:

Soon Congress will return to finish legislative priorities for the year. Among the most important of these is intelligence reform legislation (HR 10/ S 2845). As President of Americans for Tax Reform, I write to you today to express concerns I have with the drivers’ license provisions of this legislation.

Both versions of the bill would require that states adopt a standardized drivers’ license template that would, in effect, serve as the face of a national ID card. The threat inherent in that arrangement, though, comes from the inter-linking of data across jurisdictions and agencies. While I disagree with the concept of a national ID card in any form, I think that at least several protections must be made for the civil liberties of taxpayers:

Interlinked state databases must not be accessible to any federal agency. To allow any federal bureaucracy to access a national database would remove the pretense of this not being a national ID card
Foreign nations should never have any access to the information that is gathered
None of these databases should be linked together, and there should not be any inspection checkpoints.

Congress should focus on passing an effective intelligence reform bill that both Houses can pass and the President can sign into law. A reasonable compromise on liberty exists that will best reorganize our intelligence capabilities and make the country stronger and safer.

Sincerely,

Grover Norquist