Congress is currently running through the
recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and working on a bill that would fix the problems that have been
pointed out. The 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act address key points such as, law enforcement, immigration, border security, and foreign
policy. The new legislation is an effort to make it easier to track down terrorist, and prevent them from carrying out their plots. Hidden in the
depths of this legislation, is a clause that guarantees that biometric information will be embedded on driver's licenses. When you join this with the
clause calling for states to share databases with their resident's information, you have a defacto National ID card.
Reuters - House Republicans Unveil Sweeping Sept. 11
Bill
U.S. House of Representatives Republican leaders unveiled sweeping legislation on Friday that they said reflects Sept. 11 commission recommendations
for reforming U.S. intelligence operations.
"Our bill is the most comprehensive effort yet introduced that deals with the problems uncovered by the 9/11 Commission," said Speaker of the House
Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican.
"We wrote this bill to make sure that we have the best interests of the American people and the security of the American people at heart," he added.
"We want to do the things that we must do to catch terrorists and keep terrorists from attacking the American people."
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
What Reuters doesn't mention is the section of the bill that would drastically overhaul each state's driver's license regulation. According to
section 3052, the minimum requirements of a federally approved identification card would "
subject each person applying for a driver�s license or
identification card to mandatory facial image capture." The bill doesn't specify what portion of the face, so this could be an entire facial
scan, or a retinal scan. The biometric data would be saved on the card, as well as in a database, so that the card holder could be verified at a later
time.
Along with this requirement, the next section goes on to document regulations for states to share their information. States not complying will have
federal funds withheld as punishment. States must participate in the "
sharing of driver license data, known as the ��Driver License Agreement��,
in order to provide electronic access by a State to information contained in the motor vehicle databases of all other State."
The document that originally specified this information is mysteriously missing from the Speaker of the House's web site, but you can still read the
important parts on
a blog that keeps track of this
information. Some argue that the government already has all the information that they need to follow your actions. Still it is possible that the
issuing of this card would subject citizens to a virtual "Papers, please!" everywhere they went.
Related Links:
nationalid.blogspot.com
Related ATS Discussions:
Tagging & Tracking - Through Your new Card
[edit on 28-9-2004 by dbates]