Privacy advocates say new law will lead to national ID card
Does the intelligence reform bill signed into law today by President Bush provide a back door to a national ID card? Some say it does:
Privacy advocates worry that provisions buried in the intelligence bill President Bush is to sign Friday will lead to a national identification card.
Little-noted measures included in the legislation that reshuffles intelligence agencies order states to begin issuing new fraud-proof birth certificates, and new driver's licenses with standardized data encoded on them are set for 2006.
What data will be included on licenses and how it will be used in federal databanks is not yet clear. The legislation only requires the data to be "machine readable," leaving the issue of what data to collect to the Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security. Regulations concerning fraud-proofing birth certificates are to be drafted by the Department of Heath and Human Services.
"There's a problem," said Marc Rotenberg, a Georgetown University law professor who serves as executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington think tank.
"There are two directions they can go here. One is to reduce the likelihood of fraud and counterfeiting of driver's licenses, which we all would applaud. Or they could link this all together in a new national database, which is what they should not do."
The legislation states that within two years, U.S. government employees won't accept any driver's licenses or birth certificates issued by the states that don't comply with the new fraud-proof requirements. That means drivers from states that don't comply with the new requirements will be unable to use their state licenses as identification to get past federal airport screeners and board an aircraft.
Organizations ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to the Gun Owners of America oppose the measure, saying it would give too much power to federal bureaucrats to decide who could get a valid license.
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has concerns about where this could all lead.
"History shows governments inevitably use such power in harmful ways," Paul said.