AGA Today
States Get Extra
Time on Launch of 'Real ID'
By
Spencer S. Hsu and Stephen Barr
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 1, 2007; Page A04
The Bush administration will allow states
to postpone the planned May 2008 launch of a program to toughen security
requirements for driver's licenses by up to 19 months, in response to
complaints about the projected $11 billion cost and potential
disruptions, congressional and Department of Homeland Security officials
said yesterday.
The retreat came as the White House and
the Democratic Congress headed for a showdown over a broad
counterterrorism bill to implement many of the remaining recommendations
of the Sept. 11 commission, which called for ways to make it more
difficult to obtain fraudulent identification. President Bush threatened
to veto the overall bill if the Senate joined the House in extending
union protection to 45,000 federal airport screeners.
"The Administration vigorously disagrees
with these provisions . . . which were not recommended by the 9/11
Commission," the White House said in a statement. Reducing the
Transportation Security Administration's flexibility to deploy workers
and meet new threats "would reduce travelers' security," the statement
said.
As the Senate began debate on the bill
yesterday, eight senators supported a push by Sen. Susan M. Collins
(R-Maine) to postpone the driver's license program by two years. They
blamed the administration for failing until a scheduled announcement
today to spell out what states must do to comply with the law, which was
passed nearly two years ago.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said the
program, known as Real ID, was an unfunded federal mandate that would
force governors and legislatures into unpopular choices such as raising
taxes or tuition, or diverting money from education or health
initiatives.
"We are for the first time in history
creating a national ID card, with all the ramifications of that,"
Alexander said. "Let's make sure we know what we're doing."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff is expected this morning to lay out long-awaited requirements
for states to standardize information to be included on licenses, verify
applicants' citizenship status, and check information such as birth
certificates and driver histories with other state and federal
databases.
Only IDs that meet the new standard will
be acceptable for federal purposes such as boarding airplanes or
entering courthouses.
A senior Homeland Security official,
speaking on the condition of anonymity pending the official release,
said that although the Real ID law set a May 2008 deadline, the
administration is interpreting that as requiring states to be able to
begin issuing compliant IDs by that time. They will be allowed to
replace all 245 million licenses held by Americans on a "reasonably
prompt basis" over five years.
States that could justify their requests
for more time would be granted waivers, the official said. Although
details were still being worked out and could change, two congressional
GOP sources said DHS would in effect set a start date at the end of
2009, similar to Collins's proposal.
The fight presaged a difficult two-week
debate over reforms backed by the panel that investigated the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks.
Earlier this week, 36 Republican senators
lined up behind Bush's veto threat, enough to defeat any override
attempt. A similar battle in 2002 delayed creation of the Homeland
Security Department.
Addressing reporters, sponsor Sen. Joseph
I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) noted that the bill included $3.3 billion for
emergency communications, $3.1 billion a year for five years for
risk-based grants to states, and stronger rail, aviation and port
security measures.
"Is it worth stopping all the
improvements of homeland security, adopting the recommendations of the
9/11 commission that have such bipartisan support . . . for one
provision that gives quite moderate to weak employee rights, frankly, to
people who work every day as screeners?" Lieberman said.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) proposed a
deal to give TSA workers "very basic" rights, such as whistle-blower
protections, a spokeswoman said, which TSA chief Kip Hawley said could
be acceptable.
But John Gage, president of the American
Federation of Government Employees, said workers would not settle for
such changes.
Border Patrol officers and customs agents
within the Homeland Security Department, and Capitol Police and state
and local police and firefighters, enjoy collective bargaining rights,
Gage said. Workers from TSA reported injury and illness rates in 2006
that were six times the 5 percent average for all federal employees, and
an attrition rate 10 times the 2.2 percent average for federal
civilians, he said.