[Infowarrior] - Chertoff: ID must comply to fly

[Richard Forno]

 Chertoff: ID must comply to fly

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press WriterFri Mar 21, 6:39 PM ET


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080321/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/secure_driver_s_licens
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Homeland security officials on Friday hinted at a possible face-saving deal
to end their standoff with a handful of states over new driver's license
rules ‹ a dispute that, left unresolved, could cause big air travel
headaches.

For weeks, the Homeland Security Department has been headed toward a
showdown with some states over a law called Real ID, which would require new
security measures for state-issued driver's licenses. Yet a late Good Friday
letter from a top DHS official suggested Washington may be backing away from
a messy fight.

South Carolina, Maine and Montana are the only states that have not sought
extensions to comply, or already started toward compliance with Real ID,
which was passed after the 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

On Friday, the federal agency granted Montana an extension, even though
state officials didn't ask for one and insist they will not adhere to the
Real ID law.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer told The Associated Press that DHS "painted
themselves in a corner."

A fourth state, New Hampshire, has asked to be exempted, but Homeland
Security officials have not found that letter legally acceptable, so the
Granite State has not received an extension.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had warned that if holdout
states do not send a letter by the end of March seeking an extension, come
May, residents of such states will no longer be able to use their driver's
licenses as valid ID to board airplanes or enter federal buildings.

Such travelers would instead have to present a passport or be subjected to
secondary screening.

Five senators ‹ Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Jon Tester and Max
Baucus of Montana, and John Sununu of New Hampshire ‹ appealed to Chertoff
last week to exempt all 50 states from the looming deadline.

Chertoff responded that it was not he but Congress that picked the date when
the law went into effect in 2005.

"You may disagree with the foregoing law, but I cannot ignore it," Chertoff
said in the letter.

The law, he said, is necessary for national security according to
recommendations from the commission that studied the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks.

Yet hours after Chertoff sent those letters Friday, DHS Assistant Secretary
Stewart Baker wrote to the attorney general of Montana, saying that even
though the state was explicitly not seeking an extension, it would be
granted one anyway. Baker reasoned the state's new license security measures
already met many of the Real ID requirements anyway.

"I can only provide the relief you are seeking by treating your letter as a
request for an extension," Baker wrote.

Schweitzer, Montana's Democratic governor, said his state had not backed
down.

"We sent them a horse. If they choose to call it a zebra, that is their
business," said Schweitzer.

The agency's approach to Montana could provide an easy way out for the
remaining states resistant to Real ID ‹ and suggests the federal government
doesn't want to go ahead with its plan to conduct extra screening on
residents of certain states.

If the two sides can't cut a face-saving deal, Chertoff has offered a blunt
warning to those critics who claim the government is bluffing. "Showing up
at the airport with only a driver's license from such a state will be no
better than showing up without identification," he wrote to the senators.
"No doubt this will impel many to choose the inconvenience of traveling with
a passport."

The end of the standoff with Montana does not necessarily mean the entire
fight is over.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was considering legal action, and the
state's attorney general was preparing an opinion on whether the governor
would have a case if he decided to sue the federal government. A spokesman
for Attorney General Henry McMaster said the opinion will be released
Monday.

Chertoff has offered a plan to gradually implement Real ID requirements over
a period of 10 years, so that eventually all driver's licenses would have
several layers of security features to prevent forgery. They would also be
issued only after a number of identity checks, including immigration status
and verification of birth certificates.

Critics of the plan say it is too expensive, an invasion of privacy, and
won't actually make the country safer.

___

Associated Press writer Matt Gouras in Helena, Mont., contributed to this
report.