Congress passed the Real ID Act and President Bush signed it into law in May 2005. It was included in and enacted as part of the "Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005" -- a must-pass piece of legislation addressing important issues that everyone in Congress supported. Real ID was included in the House version of the bill but not the Senate version -- it passed as part of the final legislation with no public deliberation or debate.

The Real ID Act provides that after May 11, 2008 state-issued driver's licenses and identity documents will not be accepted by federal purposes if they do not meet the requirements of the Real ID Act, which include:

1. standardized data elements and security features on driver's licenses;
2. a "machine readable zone" that will allow for the easy capture of all the data on the driver's licenses by the government, stores or anyone else with a reader;
3. the construction of a 50-state, interlinked database making all the information in each person's file available to all the other states and to the federal government;
4. proof of a driver license applicant's full legal name, date of birth, Social Security Number, principal address and lawful status in the United States; and
5. a requirement that states verify the "issuance, validity and completeness" of every document presented at motor vehicles agencies as part of an application for a Real ID card. ¹

In the case of a state driver's license or identification card that does not comply with all of the Real ID requirements, the state would be required to mark that license or identification card as distinct. In particular, it would have to clearly state "on its face that it may not be accepted by any Federal agency for federal identification or any other official purpose;" and use "a unique design or color to alert Federal agency and other law enforcement personnel that it may not be accepted for any such purpose." ²

On March 1, the Department of Homeland Security released its proposed regulations for implementation of the Real ID Act, which included the potential for a two-year extension of the compliance deadline ³ -- an attempt to pacify state anger about the program, which state government officials had called "impossible" to implement.⁴ Unfortunately, the regulations failed to solve many of Real ID's fundamental problems, including its high cost, the threat to privacy to Americans, and the increasing risk of identity theft imposed by the Act.

Footnotes

1 Public Law 109-13, § 202(c)(2)(B).

2 Id. § 202(c)(3)(d)(11).

3 Dep't of Homeland Sec., Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Minimum Standards for Driver's licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes, 72 Fed. Reg. 10, 845 (Mar. 1, 2007) [hereinafter "Real ID Draft Regulations"], available at www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/nprm_realid.pdf (PDF). Key dates for Real ID implementation are as follows: (1) October 1, 2007: States unable to meet the statutory deadline of May 11, 2008 must file a request for an extension along with a plan for implementation; (2) February 10, 2008: States that are not applying for an extension must submit an application for certification to DHS; (3) May 11, 2008: statutory compliance date; (4) December 31, 2009: Extension deadline. Implementation must be complete for states to be considered compliant by DHS; and (5) May 10, 2013: Following this date, non-compliant ID's will no longer be accepted for official federal purposes.

4 National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures and American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, The Real ID Act: National Impact Analysis, January 2005, available at www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0609REALID.pdf (PDF).