Posted on 02/04/2007 11:02:15 PM PST by neverdem
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 — Opposition among state officials is turning into an open revolt against a federal law calling for the creation of standardized driver’s licenses nationwide that are meant to be less vulnerable to fraud.
Maine legislators started off the rebellion late last month by passing a nonbinding resolution that rejected the law, called the Real ID Act, which Congress passed in 2005. They said that it would cost the state $185 million to put into place and that instead of making Maine’s residents more secure, it would leave them more vulnerable to identity theft.
Since then, legislatures in five states — Georgia, Montana, New Mexico, Washington and Wyoming — have voted in committee or on the floor of one chamber to move similar legislation ahead. The bill adopted in a 99-to-1 vote by the Montana House of Representatives would go furthest, ordering state officials there to ignore the federal law.
Unless the federal law is revised, any state that defies it will risk causing major inconvenience for its residents, as noncompliant licenses will not be accepted as a proof of identification at airports, federal buildings or when applying for federal benefits.
What state officials are hoping is that Congress will repeal or modify the law, or at least provide some of the billions of dollars the states claim it will cost to establish the new licensing system nationwide.
The campaign features an odd mix of liberal Democrats, offended by a measure in the law that would effectively block illegal immigrants from getting federally compliant driver’s licenses, and conservative Republicans, who see the law as an affront to civil liberties and to states’ rights.
“This is a frontal assault on our freedoms,” said State Representative Jim Guest of Missouri, a Republican who said he was working with more than...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That's it. I'm quitting my job, and going into full-time identity theft! Papers, please!
There already is one ...
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fbi/is/ncic.htm
Boo!
Can you help me find it?
L
Previously posted article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779077/posts
Its not there, but I didn't see where it says the federal government cannot set standards for forms of identification it accepts for various purposes.
I'm failing to see a downside here, unless it's linked to financial information. I'd sure rather have an ID other than my SSN scrawled on literally hundreds of documents from dentists to phone companies, and if this had been in place in 2004, WA? state would most very certainley have a different governor right now.
Right now social security cards are the gold standard for getting credit, and all you need to know is the number - rarely does anyone ask to see it, and even if they did, they don't come with pictures, nor do credit cards.
Everyone legally in this country already has a national ID card in the form of the social security card, and it's insecure as hell, so why fight against better, more secure ID? I've already had my identity stolen once, and I'm sick of illegals & imaginary citizens voting and sucking the life out of our economy & health services, so unless someone has a better idea.........
Actually I have one.
End Social Security and give us our damned money back.
Problem solved.
Oh and we might want to do away with that Welfare State thingy that seems to entice so many people to break our immigration laws.
Just at thought.
L
Well then, get 'er done, and we'll vote on it!
The hitch was we had to cover our four year old son, too.
No problem, right? Well the problem was that the insurance card had my 2nd wifes SSN on it and my ex had already used mine fraudulently a number of times. So quite understandably we were relunctant to hand it over to her.
I fought for months with the insurance company to get that damnable number off that stupid card. They told me I was nuts for worrying about it, that nothing could go wrong, and that I was the only person in the entire history of the world who had made an issue of it.
I told them what they were doing was illegal and that by law an SSN was only supposed to be used for tax and SS purposes. They told me to go ahead and sue.
So I took a Sharpie pen, crossed over the SSN on the card and handed that to my ex and told her to have them call us if they needed it.
Well lo and behold not a decade later they've pulled all those SSNs off all those SS cards because of 'identity theft' concerns.
L
My social security number is my ID number on my insurance card. Always has been.
It's not on my Blue Cross card anymore. We laughed our butts off when we got the new ones a while back.
You really ought to throw a call in to your insurance company and demand they get that number off of there. Tell 'em you'll hold them responsible if some crook in some doctors office or in one of their processing centers misuses it.
L
Democrats are fearful of honorable honest voting.
1. Don't interfere in the states' rights to issue their own drivers' licenses.
2. Stop accepting a driver's license as a valid for of ID for Federal purposes (e.g., Customs/Immigration, airport security, etc.).
Case closed.
Oh -- and I'd add a #3, too . . . Any state that issues driver's licenses to illegal aliens cannot force other states to recognize these licenses. If you are a New York driver and you get pulled over in Wyoming, your New York license isn't valid.
Notice they can't directly tell the states to do it. All they can do is offer federal money which is conditional on the states doing federal bidding.
just stay off the interstate hiway system just for starters.
just stay off the interstate hiway system just for starters.
Is there a Federal License required to drive on them? Do Federal Police patrol them?
L
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