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Published: April 2008

Real ID plagued by fiscal and privacy concerns

Coalition: Privacy Coalition

Consumer Action joined in a letter opposing further funding for the Real ID Act of 2005. Several states have refused to implement the act because of the Department of Homeland Security's failure to adequately address technology and privacy concerns.

We, the undersigned organizations, urge you to oppose any legislation that would lead to funding for the implementation of the Real ID Act of 2005 due to the many states refusing to implement the Act and the Department of Homeland Security’s (“DHS”) failure to resolve technological and privacy problems. These DHS failures call into question DHS’s commitment to Real ID implementation.

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.

Lead Organization

American Civil Liberties Union

Other Organizations

American Civil Liberties Union | American Immigration Lawyers Association | American Policy Center | Americans for Democratic Action, Inc.| 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 |DownsizeDC.org, Inc | Electronic Frontier Foundation | Fairfax County Privacy Council |Farm Labor Organizing Committee | Gun Owners of America | 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 | Legal Momentum | Liberty Coalition | Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service | MIRA Coalition | The Multiracial Activist | National Center for Transgender Equality | National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund | National Immigration Law Center | National Korean American Service & Education Consortium | OCA | Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays | Privacy Rights Clearinghouse | 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

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