Editorial: National identity crisis looms

Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2006 | 7:51 a.m.

A national survey of state motor vehicle department administrators says a federal anti-terrorism law that calls for creating a national standard for driver's licenses by 2008 is logistically, financially and technologically impossible to meet.

The survey, conducted by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and detailed in an Associated Press story last week, polled state driver's license officials about the Real ID Act.

The law, which was tacked onto a funding measure for the Iraq war in May, is designed to standardize, and in some states will stiffen, identity requirements for licenses and state identification cards and also make counterfeits more difficult to obtain. Hijackers responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks possessed legitimate driver's licenses.

But it is "flat out impossible and unrealistic" to meet all of the law's demands in two years, a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation official told the AP. Some states will have to completely overhaul their computer systems. Rhode Island's upgrades alone will cost about $20 million.

The law also requires that all license applications be screened by a federal database designed to identify illegal immigrants. But South Carolina officials told the AP that the database, launched in 1986, "is notoriously unreliable." And the law's requirements make no primary address exceptions for "snowbirds" who reside in recreational vehicles, a South Dakota administrator noted.

Driver's licenses or ID cards issued by states that fail to meet all of the law's demands could be refused as identification for boarding airplanes or entering federal buildings.

State officials said they need clarification on the actual expectations from Department of Homeland Security officials. But they have received none. Two years is hardly enough time to completely overhaul an entire state driver's license department. Many states likely face failure. Homeland Security officials must promptly convey their goals and set realistic expectations so that the objective of creating valid identification is reached without penalizing thousands of residents on technicalities.