Jan 10, 2008 7:09 pm US/Eastern
Real ID To Cost States Real Money
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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A new federal law designed to make it tougher for terrorists to get driver's licenses is causing problems in all 50 states and in the district.
A new federal law designed to make it tougher for terrorists to get driver's licenses is causing problems in all 50 states and in the district.
Mike Schuh reports Maryland lawmakers are trying to determine what to do.
A license to drive is more than that. It's the gold standard for domestic identification. But if you don't like the wait now, just wait. Most of the system will have to be redesigned.
"Everything that we can reasonably assume will be in the final regulations has a negative impact on customer service," said Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary John Pocari.
Federal regulations, called Real ID, direct the states to follow uniform rules to make sure bad licenses aren't being issued.
This comes after the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001.
All 19 hijackers, together, had dozens of state issued driver's licenses including a couple from Maryland. None of them used their real names.
"Real ID will cost the states $11 billion over five years," said a speaker in the Senate Judicial Committee.
On Thursday, lawmakers tried to figure out what to do and how to pay upgrade costs in the range of $70 million.
Maryland could simply ignore the federal regulations, but if the state chooses to do that, current licenses won't get you on any commercial aircraft or in any federal building.
"Some other states have talked about just ignoring the law or not complying with it. I don't think that's a responsible way to go. We will comply with the law. We do need to understand that it has customer service impacts, and what's really going on here is that through this federal law, our state driver's licenses, in every state, are being turned into essentially a national identity card," said Pocari.
The final regulations haven't been issued, but the deadline for compliance is just five months away.
Some say there are ways around the costly project.
"You can go into federal buildings and you can get on airplanes with other documents, a passport," said Delegate Ana Gutierrez.
One area of controversy with the regulations is that license applicants must prove they are in this country legally.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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