Senate Committee Criticizes DHS for REAL ID Pressure
"Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized the Department of Homeland Security yesterday for pressuring reluctant states to adopt new federally approved driver's licenses, with one accusing Secretary Michael Chertoff of 'bullying' the states into compliance under a threat of blocking citizens' travel," reports The Washington Post. "'We ought to engage in a fairer, more productive negotiated rule-making with the states,' the committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), told Chertoff."
In the Cato-@-Liberty blog post "Failed, Self-Contradictory REAL ID Myth-Busting," Jim Harper, Cato's director of information policy studies, writes:
"It's true that REAL ID allows states to issue driver's licenses and identification cards that don't meet the federal standards. They won't be acceptable for 'official purposes,' which are defined as follows in the statute: 'The term 'official purpose' includes but is not limited to accessing Federal facilities, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, entering nuclear power plants, and any other purposes that the Secretary shall determine.'"
"Once REAL ID is in place, the secretary of homeland security has the power to require it for any purpose beyond the ones listed in the statute. What might those be?"
Re following and what has been described as "mission creep", I suggest that readers pay particular attention to the last two sentences. Readers should also remember that whatever faults DHS and it's secretary might have, it was The Congress that wrote the law.
"Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized the Department of Homeland Security yesterday for pressuring reluctant states to adopt new federally approved driver's licenses, with one accusing Secretary Michael Chertoff of 'bullying' the states into compliance under a threat of blocking citizens' travel," reports The Washington Post. "'We ought to engage in a fairer, more productive negotiated rule-making with the states,' the committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), told Chertoff."
In the Cato-@-Liberty blog post "Failed, Self-Contradictory REAL ID Myth-Busting," Jim Harper, Cato's director of information policy studies, writes:
"It's true that REAL ID allows states to issue driver's licenses and identification cards that don't meet the federal standards. They won't be acceptable for 'official purposes,' which are defined as follows in the statute: 'The term 'official purpose' includes but is not limited to accessing Federal facilities, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, entering nuclear power plants, and any other purposes that the Secretary shall determine.'"
"Once REAL ID is in place, the secretary of homeland security has the power to require it for any purpose beyond the ones listed in the statute. What might those be?"
Re following and what has been described as "mission creep", I suggest that readers pay particular attention to the last two sentences. Readers should also remember that whatever faults DHS and it's secretary might have, it was The Congress that wrote the law.
