The Site has several links in the article itself:
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/20881.html
The article:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Your License or Your Life
by Declan McCullagh
3:00 a.m. 22.Jul.99.PDT
WASHINGTON -- If Representative Lamar Smith has his way, your driver's license will soon sport your Social Security number, whether you like it or not. It may also include microchips encoded with your fingerprints and other personal data.
Government agencies will no longer accept as identification licenses that don't meet the new standards.
Smith, a Republican from San Antonio, is firmly convinced the new features will reduce immigration. Not only is he doggedly opposed to illegal immigration, he wants to reduce legal immigration, insisting that low-skilled workers compete with US citizens for entry-level jobs.
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See also: Your Driver License, For Sale?
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At a hearing Thursday, the House Immigration subcommittee will debate the future of modified driver licenses, which detractors derisively call a "national ID card."
Since Smith heads the subcommittee, his opponents have had an uphill battle. Making their fight even more difficult is the fact that Congress approved the new license rules in 1996. Civil liberties and privacy groups are doggedly attempting to repeal the law before it takes effect next year.
So far, they've had little success. It's true that in 1998 they managed to get the Transportation Department to delay following through on regulations for a year. But that temporary setback expires in October 1999. They had no luck in inserting a flat-out repeal in a transportation spending bill last month.
"We're urging Congress to reverse course on national IDs," said Greg Nojeim, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Too many proposals to combat illegal immigration instead limit the rights and freedoms of Americans. We don't need a national ID card to be the legacy of efforts to keep undocumented people from working."
The ACLU is part of a coalition with other liberal groups, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Electronic Privacy Information Center. But the alliance also includes arch-conservative organizations: the Eagle Forum, the Free Congress Foundation, and Americans for Tax Reform.
The organizations found common ground in what they uniformly believe is a serious threat to privacy. "Proposals for a national ID have been consistently rejected in the United States as an infringement of personal liberty," said a recent coalition letter urging Congress to nix the current law.
"We care about this hearing because there are other members that are receptive to privacy concerns. While Lamar Smith is on the other side, other members need to hear what's going on," said Lori Cole, a spokesman for the Eagle Forum's office in Washington.
For his part, Smith angrily denies that he's Big Brother incarnate in a note he posted on his Web site: "I do not support a national ID card and don't know anyone who does."
In response to the 1996 law that requires "security features" in licenses, the Department of Transportation in June 1998 proposed that states must encode SSNs (and possibly digitized fingerprints) onto drivers licenses.
After October 2000, the feds will require these new licenses if people want to use any government service, board an airplane, be eligible for Medicare -- in other words, live a normal life and do the everyday things most Americans take for granted.
The DOT will be allowed to proceed in October 1999, unless Congress acts.
"The states are concerned that they will be legally obligated to encode information in drivers licenses and collect Social Security numbers," says one Hill source. The National Conference of State Legislators and the National Association of Counties have joined the coalition.
They sent a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert on 30 June urging Congress to repeal Section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibilities Act of 1996.
Another letter signed by six Congressmen urges colleagues to support a repeal measure -- the Privacy Protection Act -- introduced by Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas).[/quote]
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John/az
"The middle of the road between the extremes of good and evil, is evil. When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..."
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/20881.html
The article:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Your License or Your Life
by Declan McCullagh
3:00 a.m. 22.Jul.99.PDT
WASHINGTON -- If Representative Lamar Smith has his way, your driver's license will soon sport your Social Security number, whether you like it or not. It may also include microchips encoded with your fingerprints and other personal data.
Government agencies will no longer accept as identification licenses that don't meet the new standards.
Smith, a Republican from San Antonio, is firmly convinced the new features will reduce immigration. Not only is he doggedly opposed to illegal immigration, he wants to reduce legal immigration, insisting that low-skilled workers compete with US citizens for entry-level jobs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See also: Your Driver License, For Sale?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At a hearing Thursday, the House Immigration subcommittee will debate the future of modified driver licenses, which detractors derisively call a "national ID card."
Since Smith heads the subcommittee, his opponents have had an uphill battle. Making their fight even more difficult is the fact that Congress approved the new license rules in 1996. Civil liberties and privacy groups are doggedly attempting to repeal the law before it takes effect next year.
So far, they've had little success. It's true that in 1998 they managed to get the Transportation Department to delay following through on regulations for a year. But that temporary setback expires in October 1999. They had no luck in inserting a flat-out repeal in a transportation spending bill last month.
"We're urging Congress to reverse course on national IDs," said Greg Nojeim, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Too many proposals to combat illegal immigration instead limit the rights and freedoms of Americans. We don't need a national ID card to be the legacy of efforts to keep undocumented people from working."
The ACLU is part of a coalition with other liberal groups, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Electronic Privacy Information Center. But the alliance also includes arch-conservative organizations: the Eagle Forum, the Free Congress Foundation, and Americans for Tax Reform.
The organizations found common ground in what they uniformly believe is a serious threat to privacy. "Proposals for a national ID have been consistently rejected in the United States as an infringement of personal liberty," said a recent coalition letter urging Congress to nix the current law.
"We care about this hearing because there are other members that are receptive to privacy concerns. While Lamar Smith is on the other side, other members need to hear what's going on," said Lori Cole, a spokesman for the Eagle Forum's office in Washington.
For his part, Smith angrily denies that he's Big Brother incarnate in a note he posted on his Web site: "I do not support a national ID card and don't know anyone who does."
In response to the 1996 law that requires "security features" in licenses, the Department of Transportation in June 1998 proposed that states must encode SSNs (and possibly digitized fingerprints) onto drivers licenses.
After October 2000, the feds will require these new licenses if people want to use any government service, board an airplane, be eligible for Medicare -- in other words, live a normal life and do the everyday things most Americans take for granted.
The DOT will be allowed to proceed in October 1999, unless Congress acts.
"The states are concerned that they will be legally obligated to encode information in drivers licenses and collect Social Security numbers," says one Hill source. The National Conference of State Legislators and the National Association of Counties have joined the coalition.
They sent a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert on 30 June urging Congress to repeal Section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibilities Act of 1996.
Another letter signed by six Congressmen urges colleagues to support a repeal measure -- the Privacy Protection Act -- introduced by Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas).[/quote]
------------------
John/az
"The middle of the road between the extremes of good and evil, is evil. When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..."