Posted on 05/10/2005 9:14:42 PM PDT by AntiGuv
WASHINGTON - New driver's license rules tucked in a military spending bill will create national identification cards for Americans and stick state governments with the bill, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander said Tuesday.
Alexander, R-Tenn., joined Democrats and state officials in railing against the White House-backed driver's license rules and other immigration measures before the Senate approved the $82 billion spending bill 100-0. The House approved it last week.
Several states fear the new rules will be costly, provide little protection against invasions of privacy and identity theft, and make getting a driver's license a bigger headache for Americans.
The rules are aimed at stopping illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses to prevent them from boarding planes or entering protected federal buildings. States will have three years to meet the new standards that include verifying applicants are American citizens or legal residents.
The House had included the rules and other immigration provisions in its version of the bill paying for the U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate did not, but negotiators included them in the final bill.
Alexander and other lawmakers said the rules established in the REAL ID Act will have unintended consequences. Driver's license examiners trained to decide whether a person can parallel park will have to determine whether an applicant is an al-Qaida terrorist, he said.
"It's possible that some governor may look at this and say, 'Wait a minute. Who are these people in Washington telling us what to do with our driver's licenses and making us pay for them, too?'" Alexander said.
Some states have threatened to challenge the new driver's license orders in court and even disobey them.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, vice chairman of the National Governors Association, has said "if more than half of the governors agree we're not going down without a fight on this, Congress will have to consider changing" the rules. Huckabee also is a Republican.
"If you think a trip to the division of motor vehicle is a bad experience today, wait until the REAL ID takes effect," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said.
All but one of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had some form of U.S. identification, some of it fraudulent, the Sept. 11 commission found. The commission recommended the federal government set standards for birth certificates and other identification documents, including driver's licenses.
Congress created a panel to negotiate new driver's license standards, but the new rules supersede the panel.
The new rules were written by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., House Judiciary Committee chairman, who failed in attempts to include similar provisions in an intelligence reorganization bill signed by President Bush last year. He was promised he could add them to the first bill guaranteed to get congressional approval.
Sensenbrenner's spokesman Jeff Lungren said the rules do not create a national ID card but are "merely settings standards for the states" and building on states' ongoing efforts to boost driver's license security.
The bill allows the Homeland Security secretary to provide grants to states to help defray costs, but it includes no money for them. Lungren said that will be addressed in appropriations bills.
WHAT AN IDIOT. "This bill is terrible... that's why I just voted for it?!?!"
This guy needs to be committed to a mental instution with split personality disorder.
It sounds like a good idea but it does reek of the Mark of the Beast.
The National ID Act ("REAL ID") was attached to the military appropriations bill, which is why it passed 100-0. It's a common tactic to get legislation through that wouldn't pass otherwise.
The mark of the beast will almost certainly be something you choose to take as a stand against God, or at the very least so you will not stand out. I doubt that it will be something you have no choice over.
Sooner or later your whole life history is going to be on a credit card. Until they stop hackers from breaking into Pentagon computers, I don't think it is a good idea.
Sen Alexander couldn't convince a single Senator...not even HIMSELF to support his position. I wonder if he'll decide to run for President in 2008?
"and stick state governments with the bill, Republican Sen. Lamer Alexander said Tuesday."
There's the rub. Lamer doesn't want his buddies in the state house to have to PAY for it. And he's angling for that flannel shirt run for the White House again. He needs that local help.
Gawd, I'm sick of the Senate Republicans. If I trusted him as far as I could throw him, I'd be glad to have him agin' it. But Lamer would sell out his gramma to be even Vice President.
"I just hope that if you have to take 4 forms of identification in to get the first new license"
Where do you get this 4 forms of ID?
At 67, i've never had that many and can't even think of what 4 different forms of ID could be.
No disagreement with this. I just think we toss out "the mark of the beast" a bit too easily. God seems to reserve things like that for those "your either with me or agin' me" moments.
The Social Security number already has all the disadvantages of a national ID with none of the advantages. May as well have the real thing.
He voted against it before he voted for it?
Drivers license, NRA membership card, Casino players card, Costco card etc.
How is a marriage certificate, professional licence (ny contractors license), or even my pilots licence a form of ID?
You could make them on any computer and print them out on cheap thin cardboard and they would be just as good as the ones they send you. Same with the SS card and I haven't had one since I was 14, 53 years ago and have never been asked for it.
I've never has a passport so I guess i'll not get a drivers license when the current one is up for reneual since the only forms of ID that I have are a drivers license and a birth certificate.
"NRA membership card, Casino players card, Costco card etc."
Those aren't any form of ID!
You can't even use a credit card for anything over $100 without showing a drivers license.
Even my pilots license isn't a form of ID.
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