Officials opposing REAL ID statute

The architect of a resolution voicing Ohio's opposition to a controversial federal law earned a promotion to a prominent committee leadership role.

Ohio Rep. Diana Fessler (R-District 79) is the main sponsor of House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 18, which calls for the federal government to repeal the REAL ID act of 2005.

The resolution has the bi-partisan support of nine other representatives, said Michael Dittoe, legislative aide to Rep. Fessler. If the resolution passes both houses of the Ohio General Assembly, letters would be sent to the president and all members of U.S. Congress.

Last week, Rep. Fessler took over the position of vice-chair of the Ohio House of Representatives Infrastructure, Homeland Security and Veteran's Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep. Steve Reinhard (R-District 82). Her resolution has been in the same committee since being introduced in spring 2007, but has not yet received a hearing, according to Dittoe.

"That's been very disappointing for our office," Dittoe said. Dittoe is hopeful Rep. Fessler's appointment to vice-chair of the committee will help move HCR 18 forward.

"She'll be able to help Rep. Reinhard get HCR 18 on the agenda," Dittoe said. "But that's yet to be seen at this point."

U.S. Congress passed the REAL ID act of 2005 to make it more difficult to fraudulently acquire a driver's license or identification card as part of an effort to fight terrorism and reduce fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Web site.

"The American public's desire for greater identity protection is undeniable," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in a Jan. 11 DHS press release. "Americans understand today that the 9/11 hijackers obtained 30 drivers licenses and IDs, and used 364 aliases. For an extra $8 per license, REAL ID will give law enforcement and security officials a powerful advantage against falsified documents, and it will bring some peace of mind to citizens wanting to protect their identity from theft by a criminal or illegal alien."

The act sets minimum standards for state-issued driver's licenses, including the establishment of a national database to ensure licenses aren't issued to individuals by multiple state agencies, according the DHS Web site. States are not required to participate in REAL ID; however, individuals who do not have REAL ID-compliant identification will not be able to board commercial airlines or enter federal buildings.

But REAL ID compliance actually might lead to greater risk of identity theft and create burdensome bureaucracy without providing the benefit of any greater protection against acts of terrorism, according to Mike Brickner, communications coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

"[REAL ID is] going to require that we have this huge national database of everyone who gets a REAL ID," Brickner said. "And it will include very personal information; there's really no type of protection that is mandated to keep this information private so that identity thieves or other data hackers will not get into this."

Dittoe agreed.

"Rep. Fessler and the others believed that REAL ID has the potential to move us into a state of total surveillance by the government," Dittoe said.

REAL ID requirements would result in significantly longer waiting periods to obtain identification, because Bureau of Motor Vehicle workers would be required to check the national database to ensure identification had not been issued in other states, according to Dittoe.

"That creates an enormous bureaucratic hurdle for state departments of public safety to get over, just to ensure that someone hasn't already been issued an identification card," Dittoe said.

The DHS is making approximately $360 million available to assist states with REAL ID implementation, and the total cost of implementation nationwide is almost $4 billion, according to the press release.

However, estimates of the actual cost vary. Dittoe estimated that REAL ID implementation would cost more than $10 billion nationwide, and Brickner estimated the cost at $30 billion, not including the cost of upkeep after implementation.

"Representative Fessler and the other nine members who co-sponsored the resolution are definitely supportive of the government's campaign against terrorism," Dittoe said. "There's no question about that. But they strongly believe that the benefits of the REAL ID are greatly outweighed by the costs. Because it does infringe on civil rights and personal freedoms, and because of the cost that it would impose on the state."

REAL ID Requirements

-Information and security features that must be incorporated into each card.

-Proof of identity and U.S. citizenship or legal status of an applicant.

-Verification of the source documents provided by an applicant.

-Security standards for the offices that issue licenses and identification cards.