[Infowarrior] - DHS to Outsource REAL ID

[Richard Forno]

 Activist: DHS considering outsourcing work for ID law
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35855
By Michael Martinez, National Journal's Technology Daily

The Homeland Security Department plans to outsource to a private firm the
implementation of a federal law mandating nationwide standards for
identification cards, according to a privacy activist who claims to have
obtained portions of draft regulations circulated last week.

Homeland Security sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget
proposed regulations for the so-called REAL ID Act. The department
recommends that a private data aggregator be responsible for key elements of
the law's implementation, according to a document posted by Bill Scannell, a
spokesman for the Identity Project.

OMB is allowed 90 days to review the draft regulations.

Civil libertarians have cited concerns that REAL ID effectively creates a
national ID system. Scannell did not say if Homeland Security recommended a
particular vendor, but he claimed that Secretary Michael Chertoff personally
ordered a plan to hire a private data aggregator for license and ID card
checks.

Homeland Security is granting the right to control our identity to private
industry," Scannell wrote on the Web site UnRealID.com. "It will be
Identity-Mart Inc."

A Homeland Security spokesman declined to comment on the issue.

Some states already are moving to reject REAL ID. A bill authored by Montana
state Rep. Brady Wiseman would direct the state's Justice Department not to
implement the law. The proposal has been referred to the state House
Judiciary Committee.

According to Wiseman's bill, REAL ID is "inimical to the security of the
people of Montana, will cause unneeded expense and inconvenience to those
people, and was adopted by the U.S. Congress in violation of the principles
of federalism contained in the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution."

A study released last year by the American Association of Motor Vehicle
Administrators, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the
National Governors Association estimated that REAL ID will cost states at
least $11 billion over the next six years to comply.

Sens. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and John Sununu, R-N.H., introduced
legislation at the end of last year to repeal REAL ID. Their bill would have
reinstated language from a 2004 intelligence law establishing a rulemaking
process for the development of federal standards for driver's licenses and
ID cards. Akaka, the new chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and
Sununu, are expected to re-file that proposal in the 110th Congress.

Wiseman's bill would make Montana the first state to opt out of REAL ID. A
measure to reject the law almost succeeded in New Hampshire last spring, but
it died in the state Senate.

Supporters of that bill cited various concerns about REAL ID, particularly
about whether New Hampshire would be forced to return pilot funding it had
received to comply with the law. There also was resistance from civil
libertarians who argued it would threaten the privacy of New Hampshire
residents.

Anti-REAL ID bills are expected in several other states in 2007. State
lawmakers approved a resolution at NCSL's annual conference last summer
demanding funding from the federal government to comply with the law.

Wiseman said he would be opposed to REAL ID regardless of how much money it
will cost states to comply. "No amount of funding is going to make
compliance okay for me," he said. "This isn't about money."