Government Technology - March 2008 - (Page 48)

homeland security S TAT E | LO C A L | F E D E R A L j j Synopsis: The Department of Homeland Security has announced the final Real ID regulations. Will it be enough to get all the states on board? Better Late ThanNever fter nearly three years of leaving states to twist in the wind, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released in January the final regulations for Real ID. The Real ID Act, which became law in 2005, mandates national standards for the issuance of state drivers’ licenses and personal identification cards. Among the many criticisms of the legislation was the fact that it was passed without having a complete set of rules dictating how, exactly, states were supposed to comply with the law. On Jan. 11 — just 120 days before the law’s original compliance deadline — the DHS issued its final rule on Real ID. The 300-page document pushed back the compliance deadline to 2014 for states working to implement Real ID, and it relaxed the deadline even further, to 2017, for drivers over age 50. According to several observers, however, the new rule does little to ease funding and privacy concerns that have prompted several states to refuse to comply. Agency: Department of Homeland Security. Contact: Ron Snell, Director, NCSL State Services Division, Ron.snell@ncsl.org. A DHS extends Real ID deadline, but funding and privacy questions remain. Government Technology first reported on Real ID shortly after President Bush signed it into law in 2005. (See Papers Please, November 2005.) We revisited the issue two years later (See Identity Crisis, June 2007.) due to a growing uproar among states over the DHS’s failure to provide clear details about how states were to issue new drivers’ licenses. Also high on the list of states’ concerns was the glaring omission of federal funds to help pay for the multibillion dollar undertaking. Originally states had to comply with Real ID by May 11, 2008. However, by mid-2006, the DHS hadn’t defined the technologies states needed to implement, and no funding had been secured. In response, a number of states passed resolutions — some even passed binding legislation — to opt out of participation in Real ID, despite the fact that without a Real ID-compliant license, citizens could not enter a federal building or board an aircraft. The revolt prompted the DHS to push back the deadlines for deployment. Instead of a “dropdead” implementation date, the DHS added a rollout window of several years, beginning Dec. 31, 2009 and lasting through 2011. With the ongoing revolt among states, many close to the issue hope the latest announcement will help restore order. “We are still sifting through them to see how they compare with what we’ve asked for and what kind of changes the department has made,” said Jeremy Meadows, committee director for the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) Standing Committee on Economic Development, Trade and Cultural Affairs. “Generally speaking, it does look like they listened. There are some changes we Troubled History The Real ID Act, according to its authors and supporters, will establish a set of national standards for drivers’ licenses to prevent terrorism, security breaches and identity theft. The law came under immediate fire for the aforementioned issues as well as for requiring license-holder information to be available to all 50 states. According to critics, this amounts to the creation of a national database of citizen information, which many believe is a privacy disaster in the making. Moreover many opponents decry Real ID as a subversive attempt to establish a system of national ID cards. MAR_08 48 BY C H A D VA N D E R V E E N | T E C H N O LO G Y A N D P O L I T I C S E D I T O R http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - March 2008

Government Technology - March 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Scene Four Questions for... Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers Let's [Not] Get Physical No Data Left Behind Conservation King Community Drug Test Reinventing the System Better Late Than Never Closing the Deal Spectrum Products Personal Computing signal:noise Digital Communities The Expanding Focus of Digital Communities The Digital Imperative Hot Fusion Redefining Municipal Wireless Made in the USA Bridge Detectives The 2008 Agenda

Government Technology - March 2008

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