REAL ID Funding Unresolved
Who will pay for the REAL ID act? The law stipulates which ID documents states must require before issuing a driver's license, in order for the the document to be recognized as valid by the federal government (social security, ID for plane travel, etc.). Although Congress set aside $40m to pay for start-up costs, the question of who will foot the estimated $11b bill for REAL ID remains unresolved. Speaking to TTAC by telephone, Neil Berro, Executive Director, Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, suggested a partnership. "We believe the feds should pay for the lion's share, the state's should cover some of the costs, and individual license holders should make a contribution." Berro said a token fee would educate citizens about the importance of homeland security. Berro also said a Zogby poll pegs support for REAL ID at 70 percent, but activists from both the left (open door) and right (anti-feds) have united to oppose the legislation every step of the way.
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Real ID will not make us safer or protect against terrorism. Here's why: Bruce Schneier on the fallacy of ID’s for security: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/03/EDGSI4M3171.DTL and on Real ID: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/05/real_id.html Who’s Bruce Schneier? http://www.schneier.com/index.html
At the end of the day, who pays for implementation is less important than implementation going forward. We concur though that the feds need to bear the obvious lead expense. The issue of cost should be measured against the $500 billion estimate that 9-11 resulted in. At the same time, how do you calculate the cost in lost lives? www.secure-license.org
Who pays for it Neil will determine whether this gets done or not. Again it does not matter whether you want this or whether this is good or bad. If you want to on a nationwide basis implement this then the Federal government will have to step up and pay for it. The states will not nor can they be made to do so.
Real ID was a cop out. What we really need is a national ID card and database. I am all for privacy, but the idea that any will be lost when if we have a national ID card is just silly.