A US government scheme to introduce a federal ID card
for US citizens, dubbedReal
ID, has run into problems in
Congress.
The Department of Homeland Security scheme plans to use states'
driver's licence databases as the foundation of the federal
identity scheme. Department of Homeland Security secretary Michael
Chertoff published a
Final
Rule on 11 January that set out how the scheme will work and
set dates for compliance.
Commenting on the Final Rule, Bennie Thompson, chairman of the
House of Representatives committee on homeland security, said in
a letter to Chertoff, that it showed the Bush administration
had failed to consider adequately the nation's security
priorities.
He said there was a "gulf" between the estimated implementation
cost ($10bn) and the money Congress provided ($50m). Citizens would
have to pay 40% to 58% of the implementation cost, which was
"simply unfair".
Thompson also questioned the reliability of the data. "A number
of the federal databases that the states must use to authenticate
source documents are incomplete, unreliable and in dire need of
significant enhancements By failing to address the known
inadequacies of these databases, the department has ensured
operational chaos. Failing to rectify these deficiencies will
compromise the program's mission from its onset."
He also questioned whether citizens' privacy would be protected.
"After the myriad problems the department has faced in assuring
privacy protections in other programmes, the failure to once again
build these practices into the Final Rule itself indicates a
disturbing pattern." Without these safeguards, the personal data of
245 million licence and cardholders were at risk, he said.
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