April 5, 2005 -- The REAL ID ACT (H.R. 418), which passed the House, will soon be moving to the Senate attached to a supplemental appropriations bill. It would require states adopt a standardized drivers’ license template that would, in effect, serve as the face of a national ID.

 

Just this week Washington Post reporter Jonathan Krim writes on the massive trafficking of social security numbers for as little as $35 to identity thieves and other snoopers.  Imagine the impact of a national electronic, interlinked database of driver’s licenses based on those social security numbers!  Then imagine that database available throughout Mexico and Canada.

 

A coalition of civil liberties groups on all sides of the political spectrum is working to strip these provisions from the bill and is enlisting your help. 

 

Here are some of the most egregious provisions of the bill:

 

1. STATES MUST ISSUE FEDERALLY-APPROVED ELECTRONIC ID CARDS

The bill would force states to issue all adults federally approved electronic ID cards.  It would also require US citizens to obtain assignment of SSNs prior to obtaining a driver's license or other non-driver ID.  This is a major change to US law - for the first time ever, the Social Security Act is being amended to essentially make assignment of SSNs to US citizens mandatory.  This is a de-facto national id. 

 

2. SHARES NATIONAL DATABASE WITH MEXICO & CANADA

The bill would force  states to join a drivers license compact based on the Driver License Agreement which would create inter-linked databases between all of the States, the Federal governement and the States of Mexico and the Provinces of Canada.  It basically creates a tri-national database system for tracking law abiding citizens. 

 

3. DIVERTS MILLIONS FROM STATE BUDGETS

The bill imposes up to $750 million dollars in unfunded mandates on the States – money that could be used for roads and education.

 

4. UNWARRANTED EXPANSION OF HSA SECRETARY IN IMMIGRATION &  BORDER CONTROL

It gives the Secretary of HHS the ability to waive all laws without judicial review for the construction of fortifications and roads on or near the border.  

 

CALL OR WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY!

202- 224-3121

OR

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE INFO & SEND AN E-LETTER

 

 

Tell Senators to strip these provisions from the Supplemental Budget Bill, and voice your opposition to this extreme proposal.

 

• Interlinked state databases must not be accessible to any federal agency. To allow any

federal bureaucracy to access a national database would remove the pretense of this not

being a national ID card;

 

• Foreign nations should never have any access to the information that is gathered;

 

• None of these databases should be linked together, and there should not be any inspection checkpoints.

 

WE NEED TO STOP THIS IN THE SENATE BY FRIDAY!

 

 

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