Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Editorial: A real bad ID plan
Congress sticks states with an unwieldy, expensive drivers' license system.
One tidbit in the budget Gov. Tim Kaine unveiled on Monday will no doubt incite Virginians' wrath. The governor wants to increase the fee to renew a drivers' license by $10. Don't blame him, though. This one comes primarily thanks to an unfunded, poorly planned federal mandate called the Real ID Act.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress decided to standardize some features of drivers' licenses state to state. A number of the terrorists had managed to obtain driver's licenses, seven of them in Virginia.
Congress demands digital photographs and signatures, bar codes, scrutiny of residency or citizenship, and other security features. Or something like that.
The federal government still has not specified what exactly it wants on the licenses even though states are supposed to start issuing them in May. The commonwealth will implement some changes no matter what the feds come up with because the General Assembly mandated its own security measures.
Some states have balked at the whole thing, though. They raise serious questions about the Real ID.
It would aggregate personal information about citizens in a system that would be one hacker away from mass identity theft or one greedy government away from mass marketing. Verifying residency documents could take weeks and overwhelm states. And the federal government is forcing states to pick up most of the tab.
The whole situation is a mess. Congress is considering several bills to modify, delay or even eliminate the Real ID, but it is unclear whether any will pass.
That is unacceptable. Americans should not have to wait weeks for a driver's license. They should not have to worry about a massive database tracking their every move. They should not have some wannabe national ID card sloughed onto states.
But they do.
So Gov. Kaine asks the General Assembly to increase the license fee, which Virginians pay every five years, to cover security costs. At least he would offset some of it by changing vehicle inspections to every other year.
Thanks, Congress.
