Arizona is poised to join other states in balking at a federal law requiring a national ID card.
A Senate panel this week approved a memorial objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005, adding to the growing number of legislatures opposed to what is described as an intrusive law.
Maine began the revolt against Real ID last month.
“What it [the memorial] does is essentially send a postcard to the federal government telling them we don’t want them to do this and that this is an unfunded mandate,” said Sen. Ron Gould, R-3, the sponsor of SM1003.
The measure won the easy approval of Democrats and Republicans alike by a 5-0 vote on Feb. 6.
Besides Arizona, several other states have expressed opposition to Real ID, including Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Missouri, Massachusetts, Georgia and Hawaii, The Associated Press reported.
Fueling the objection to this federal law is the belief that it violates a person’s privacy and adds an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.
Gould said states would have to shell out some $11 billion to implement the law. They have until May next year to comply.
After May 2008, federal agencies will no longer accept identification cards that do not meet the Real ID’s standards.
“They should figure out a way to pay for it. I don’t want them to do it anyway, and I certainly don’t want my taxpayers to pay for it,” Gould said.
“We are allowed to travel freely in our own country, and if we have a national ID card, we’d have to produce papers to go here and there,” he said.
The lawmaker’s other objection is that Real ID might potentially open up the state’s databases to identity thieves.
Under the Act, states would have to link their databases to national databases.
The Gould memorial reads in part:
“Some of the intended privacy requirements of the REAL ID Act, such as the use of common machine-readable technology and state maintenance of a database that can be shared with the United States and agencies of other state, may actually make it more likely that a federally required driver license or state identification card, or the information about the bearer on which the license or card is based, will be stolen, sold or otherwise used for purposes that were never intended.”
The federal mandate, the memorial added, appears to be an attempt to “commandeer the political machinery of the states and to require them to be agents of the federal government, in violation of the principles of federalism.”