State given 19 months to redo driver’s licenses
Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/215325/
The U. S. Department of Homeland Security has granted Arkansas a 19-month extension to comply with post-Sept. 11, 2001, rules requiring new tamperproof driver’s licenses.
Without the extension Arkansans couldn’t have used their state driver’s licenses as identification to board airliners or enter some federal buildings after May 11.
The extension through Dec. 31, 2009, came in a two-paragraph letter from Richard C. Barth, Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for policy development.
“We weren’t surprised” by the extension, Tonie Shields, the driver services administrator for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, said this week. “For the taxpayers there’s no change.”
The extension, granted last week, will give the state time to figure out what it needs to do to comply with the rules and how much it might cost, she said.
“Some of the requirements we still don’t have the standards for,” Shields said. “There’s a huge amount of programming changes. There’s also costs involved.”
Arkansas is among 17 states that have resisted complying with the Real ID Act, which Congress passed in 2005.
Both houses of the Arkansas General Assembly adopted a concurrent resolution last year urging Congress and Homeland Security to add “critical privacy and civil liberty safeguards” to the Real ID law and to “fully fund” it or suspend putting it into effect.
The cost of implementing the federal requirement wasn’t available.
Resolutions express the will of the Legislature but don’t carry the weight of law, but Arkansas, in its request for the extension, didn’t commit to complying with the act.
Travelers from states that haven’t complied with, or oppose complying with, the federal law can use such other forms of identification as U. S. passports to board commercial aircraft or enter federal buildings.
Such a scenario would’ve been a “nightmare” for travelers and airports, said Ron Mathieu, interim executive director at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field. Many travelers have never obtained passports because they haven’t traveled out of the country, he said Monday.
“I’m happy to hear that [the Department of Homeland Security ] granted the extension,” Mathieu said. “From the airport’s perspective, anything that makes air travel less of a hassle, we support.”
Homeland Security announced the final rule Jan. 11. The rule establishes minimum standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards that supporters say will enhance the documents’ integrity and reliability.
The rule was designed to address security flaws highlighted by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The 19 hijackers obtained 30 driver’s licenses and IDs and used 364 aliases, authorities have said. Civil-liberties groups and other critics say the law won’t prevent forgery, will cost the states too much and will allow private companies access to the personal data of most U. S. citizens.
Arkansas already complies with some components of the Real ID law, officials have said.
State revenue offices, where most Arkansans obtain their driver’s licenses, have links to federal databases to confirm Social Security numbers and immigration documents. The state also uses digital photos and makes images of such supporting documents as birth certificates, which can be used to establish proof of citizenship, legal residence and identity.