Would Congress Repeal the "Real ID Act" And Forget the Lessons of the 9/11 Attacks?
By Michael Cutler
There are governors who are not willing to comply with the Real ID Act and make it more difficult for terrorists to be able to receive driver's licenses. There are members of Congress who similarly oppose the Real ID Act; Democrat Senator Richard Durbin and Republican Senator Lamar Alexander are among those leading the charge against the Real ID Act. Senator Alexander wants to add a provision to the FY 2009 DHS appropriations bill delaying any enforcement of the bill unless and until the federal government fully funds implementation - in effect, a permanent delay.
Let us remember the impetus for the Real ID Act was the lessons that should have been learned from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. All but one of the terrorists who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001, obtained state driver's licenses or other valid identifcation, with three doing so on the basis of fraudulent information. The terrorists used false identities in order to embed themselves in our country and hide in plain sight among us, before they attacked our nation and slaughtered so many innocent people. In the days and weeks after 9/11, many politicians demanded to know why the attack wasn't prevented and why the "dots weren't connected." It still took years for Congress to finally pass the "Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007." The Commission specifically recommended that standards should be set “for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as driver's licenses.”
And now instead of providing the funding for implementing the laws they passed, will Congress just walk away from the Act? What will these politicians have to say if there is another attack, and we find out that the failure to implement the Real ID Act is implicated in such attacks? The costs of implementation would certainly pale by comparison by the potential costs of a terrorist attack, without even taking into account the potential for irreplaceable human lives.
There are those who complain that the Real ID Act represents an invasion of privacy and that it is wrong to drift towards a national indentity document. Regardless of what the politicians say, the driver's license already serves that purpose today. If you doubt this, try to make a purchase with a personal check or even a credit card in a department store and see how the cashier will react. Try to board an airliner or a railroad train. Try to enter a government or even corporate building. The point is that the driver's license does more than establish the fact that the bearer is authorized to drive motor vehicles; it also is used to establish the identity of the bearer.
It is impossible for me to understand how anyone who is concerned about the security of our nation in this perilous age would oppose the implementation of the Real ID Act. The seven years since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the three years since the passage of the Real ID Act are more than adequate time for our leaders to provide our nation with true security. The Real ID Act represents an important component of such an effort and should not be repealed.