real id? PASSPORTS FOR DOMESTIVC TRAVEL??

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lynn <lynn () ecgincc com>
Date: August 17, 2007 9:52:50 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: real id?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/16/real.id/


By Eliott C. McLaughlin
CNN

CNN) -- Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to
picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states
defying the federal Real ID Act.
art.chertoff.realid.gi.jpg

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says there are no plans  
for a
federal database of drivers' information.

The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and
tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver's licenses and state ID cards
into a sort of national identification system by May 2008. The law sets
baseline criteria for how driver's licenses will be issued and what
information they must contain.

The Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an essential  
weapon
in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties watchdogs are
calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that smacks of Big
Brother.

More than half the nation's state legislatures have passed symbolic
legislation denouncing the plan, and some have penned bills expressly
forbidding compliance.

Several states have begun making arrangements for the new  
requirements --
four have passed legislation applauding the measure -- but even they may
have trouble meeting the act's deadline.

The cards would be mandatory for all "federal purposes," which include
boarding an airplane or walking into a federal building, nuclear  
facility
or national park, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the
National Conference of State Legislatures last week. Citizens in states
that don't comply with the new rules will have to use passports for
federal purposes.

"For terrorists, travel documents are like weapons," Chertoff said.  
"We do
have a right and an obligation to see that those licenses reflect the
identity of the person who's presenting it."

snip



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