CALIFORNIA DMV CONCERNED ABOUT 'REAL ID' NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION LAW

Agency Views Law As Impractical and Expensive For Taxpayers
For Immediate Release: January 12, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO – A national survey reveals that California state officials are concerned about new federal legislation that will require extensive changes at the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and will burden taxpayers and license applicants with considerable costs. The Real ID Act, passed by Congress last spring, imposes federal regulations on the design, issuance and management of state driver’s licenses – turning them, for all practical purposes, into federal identity papers.

“California officials are right to be concerned,” said Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director at the ACLU of Northern California. “Real ID not only means a national ID, but it will mean higher taxes and fees, longer lines, repeat visits to the California DMV, bureaucratic snafus, and, for a lot of people, the inability to obtain a license. To top it off, it will do little if anything to make us safer.”

The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) conducted a national survey of state motor vehicle officials’ about the new federal law. The survey was first reported today by the Associated Press and a copy of California’s response to the survey was obtained by the ACLU and is available online at www.realnightmare.org.

Ozer noted the concerns expressed by California officials are broadly shared by motor vehicle administrators around the country. For example:

• No state that responded to the survey believes it is possible in the near future to link all the motor vehicle information databases between all states, as the statute requires.

• And 3 in 4 states reacted with “medium” to “high” concern to Real ID’s extensive new document-verification requirements, which they said would involve major systems changes and increased hiring – and that is assuming that AAMVA or the federal government will build electronic systems for verification.

In the survey, California officials wrote that the following Real ID requirements would have major impact:

• Verify and authenticate birth certificates and other required documents including proof of principal place of residence with the issuing entity. In fact, California’s officials asked: “How will we verify all identity/source documents when no national system currently exists to support this type of effort?”

• Capture and digitally store in a transferable format the images of birth certificates and other identity and source documents. The DMV states that this requirement among other things necessitates new equipment, major programming, and database development for at least 25 million records.

• Limit the period of validity of driver’s licenses and ID cards that are not temporary to a maximum of 8 years. The DMV notes that Senior ID cards are currently issued for 10 years, and this change requires that these applicants appear more often at the DMV.

In addition, there were many areas where the DMV thought the Real ID requirements would have an unknown impact because the federal regulations have not been issued; for example, the DMV asks whether the Real ID Act requirements are “day forward” meaning must all California drivers have a new Real ID compliant driver’s license by May 2008?

The DMV also asks: “Will existing cardholders be required to provide an identity/source document to re-verify their identity at the time of every renewal?” and “What will be the requirements to allow for a renewal by mail or renewal by internet program?” Finally, the DMV said the impact is unknown regarding a requirement that provides electronic access to all other states to information contained in the California motor vehicle database.

Barry Steinhardt, director of the national ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project, said that Congress needs to review the federal law. “Congress needs to do this right and actually hold hearings on the Real ID Act, listen to all the different interests and real-world practical difficulties, and give it an up-or-down vote, none of which happened when it was rammed through last spring. Californians need to join with others around the country and help block this disastrous law before it’s too late.”