Real ID: Coming to a State Near You?

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Opinion

Real ID: Coming to a State Near You?

4/11/2008

By Doug Gale

The final DHS requirements are much less stringent than earlier proposals. For example, requirements for biometric identification and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies on each card as well as a centralized database were in early versions of the DHS regulations.

State Resistance
The main reason for the dilution of the regulations was state resistance. Twenty-one states have passed some kind of legislation opposed to Real ID--some such as Montana and Maine going as far as opting out entirely. The reasons for opposition were both practical and philosophical.

Practical Concerns
Cost: The DHS estimates that the cost to states to comply with the Real ID Act will not exceed $3.9 billion. A joint study by the National Governors Association and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators estimates the costs at more than $11 billion over the next five years and points to impacts on services to the public. So far Congress has appropriated $90 million to assist states. The DHS counters that the final regulations reduce the cost to states by 73 percent from earlier proposals and would only increase the cost of an individual license by $8.

Time and Difficulty of Implementation: State motor vehicle administrators report that reissuing 242 million licenses and identification cards, which requires verifying each individual's Social Security number, vital records (birth certificates, etc.), and legal resident status, could take eight years. Verifying identity is notoriously difficult. Exceptions, such as not having a birth certificate, having changed names, or a history of using a nickname on documents, render a simple set of procedures useless. A survey by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators found that 76 percent of the responding jurisdictions anticipated that verifying the validity of source documents would have significant impact on their operation.

Security: While the current regulations no longer include a centralized database of information, concerns remain that a distributed database (one for each state) with a centralized access hub would be an attractive target for hackers. The DHS argues that the regulations provide an adequate level of security. Critics cite the recent discovery that private contractors had accessed the passport data of the current presidential candidates as evidence that federated security procedures need some work.

Scope of Information: Real ID advocates argue that the amount of information that can be remotely accessed is limited. The counter argument is that what seems to be innocuous to one person, say an address, is critical to someone else, say the victim of a stalker.