Legislator against driver's license database
By Dana Beyerle, Times Montgomery Bureau
 

MONTGOMERY - An Alabama legislator said Wednesday he'll join a growing national effort to oppose federal plans to create a national driver's license identification database that he considers intrusive.

Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, said he will introduce a resolution opposing implementation of the federal Real ID Act of 2005 when the Alabama Legislature begins its regular session next month.

States by May 2008 will have to adhere to yet-unknown federal regulations requiring presentation of certain original documents with a new driver's license application.

Unless changed, license applicants will have to produce original or certified and verifiable documents such as a birth certificate before being issued a license. Without a federally approved license, one could be denied access to an airplane flight or even opening a bank account.

Documents would be scanned into a database, the Alabama Department of Public Safety said.

"This is the first step toward a national ID," Ward said. "We don't want an unfunded national ID. It should be left to states."

The regulations stem from President Bush and Congress' reaction to 2001 terrorist attacks and the ability of anyone meaning harm to the United States to falsify documents to obtain a driver's license.

Jeff Woodard, a spokesman for Alabama House Speaker Seth Hammett, D-Andalusia, said Hammett seeks information on the implications and the costs of proposed federal requirements for securing a driver's license.

"What we have to weigh is the value of security from terrorists with your ability to present something that proves you're an American," House Majority leader Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, said.

Alabama Department of Public Safety Maj. Floyd Bingham, chief of the driver license division, said the estimated implementation cost of a new record-keeping system is about $4.5 million, with an annual operating cost of about $275,000 a year.

Matt Sundeen, a transportation analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures, told the Associated Press the system could cost states $11 billion.

Federal Department of Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen said Congress appropriated $40 million to implement the regulations that will not create centralized records of its citizens.
"There's no interest in creating a national database," he said. "States will have to be able to communicate with each other."
Alabama's senior senator, Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is concerned, spokeswoman Katie Boyd said.

Shelby is a former chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and knows the government's ability to handle information.

"The senator has serious concerns regarding the ability of the government to obtain and warehouse your most sensitive, personal information without a guarantee for its security," Boyd said.

Shelby also is concerned about mandates such as the requirement to digitize and centralize documents necessary to apply for a driver's license, Boyd said.

She said Shelby believes a rogue hacker or dishonest driver's license division employee could misuse personal information.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said legislation has not yet been introduced and he wants to see it before commenting, a spokesman said.

Gov. Bob Riley said he'll continue Alabama's implementation of the federal regulations.

"We've developed a system that probably is as good as any in the country," Riley said. "We have no plans to change it."

Missouri state Rep. Jim Guest, R-King City, said he has called legislators in at least 37 other states to raise opposition.

"I'm concerned with them establishing a database with your personal information on it and sharing it with other states and the federal government," he said.

Guest, appearing on MSNBC, doubted how new driver's license regulations could have stopped a recent letter bombing in London.

Homeland Security's Agen said the federal agency in a few weeks will publish proposed requirements and wait the 60-day public comment period before issuing final regulations.

That is if Congress doesn't act. U.S. Sens. John Sununu, R-N.H., and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, plan federal legislation on the regulations.

"Senator Akaka will have a hearing on it," spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke said.

Akaka is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Government Management, Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia.

The Maine Legislature in January approved a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005, and so far opposition has spread to Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming, the Associated Press reported.