The real deal on Real ID

One of the issues that has come up at the capitol in the last two sessions is Real ID. This specifically involves the federal government’s threat to not allow Missourians on airplanes or military bases unless we change our system of issuing drivers licenses to comply with their wishes by January 2018.

I have received a few calls and emails from constituents about Real ID, some for it and some against. So, I thought it would make a good topic for this week’s report. On an issue like this, some historical context is in order.

Real ID is one of the measures that was enacted after the 9/11 attacks nearly 16 years ago. In those attacks, a group of terrorists used fake IDs to buy plane tickets to get on flights, and then used box cutters to threaten the crew, gain access to the cockpits, and crash the planes into buildings killing nearly 3,000 innocent Americans.

The day shocked and feared and angered our nation. Not since Pearl Harbor had Americans been attacked in America. Never had there been an army without a country fighting against us, and never had most Americans heard of domestic terrorism, Al Qaeda, or Osama bin Laden. Something had to be done to get to the bottom of what had happened and insure it never happened again.

Congress made several moves in response. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created, and under it the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The color coded terror threat level system was initiated, with regular news reports of our current risk of terrorism. The Patriot Act was passed with expanded provisions of data collection by the federal government.

One other idea was Real ID, which hoped to make it harder for terrorists to acquire fake IDs like the ones used to buy the airline tickets. The bill passed in the US House, but because of concerns about federal overreach into Big-Brotherism, the bill failed in the US Senate.

So what does a Congressman do when his bill fails? He attaches it as an amendment onto a more popular bill.

The Real ID language was later amended onto an appropriations bill to fund paying our troops. In a time of heightened patriotism, no senator dared vote against paychecks for our men and women in uniform, and that’s how Real ID was passed.

But some states were not convinced Real ID was a good idea, and so passed state bills to reject the adoption of Real ID standards for their driver’s licenses. In 2005 Missouri was one of those states. Since then, all but five states (Missouri, Washington, Montana, Minnesota, and Maine) have either complied or made moves in that direction.

Again, the prime concern in 2005 was protecting Missourians’ private info from data hackers, federal government overreach, or other states’ nosiness. And this was all before the hackings of Target’s customer credit card info, Yahoo users’ names and passwords, and the DNC’s emails. In fact, all of this was before the invention of iPhones and the creation of Facebook.

Since then air travel has been made safer by TSA screenings, plain clothed air marshals, and hardening of the cockpit cabins. Therefore, some legislators argue that Real ID will not make any flight, city, or Missourian any safer during air travel, and should be scrapped like the color coded threat level system was six years ago as something that seemed like a good idea at the time but proved ineffective.

The argument to adopt Real ID is not about safety, but that if we don’t comply with the feds, they are threatening to not allow Missourians to fly unless they have a passport or other federally recognized ID.

Many months ago (Obama era), the Pentagon ordered our military bases in Missouri to not let Missourians on base with just a Missouri driver’s license. However, I have heard from some friends in the military that a Missouri ID works at military bases in other states. It is almost as if the feds are picking on us for not knuckling under to their orders.

There is currently a bill in the House (HB151) and in the Senate (SB37) dealing with this issue. Each bill has been discussed, but neither bill has received a vote.

The current bills under debate would allow Missourians the choice of the old, non-compliant ID for those who won’t fly or have privacy concerns, or a new Real ID compliant license. The Real ID would be the default, unless you requested the old ID. For some, this is a reasonable compromise. For others, it is still too much government intrusion, concerning for privacy rights, and a knuckling under to the demands of Washington DC.

It remains to be seen if either bill will move in the legislature. If a vote is requested, the choice would be to capitulate to the feds and put Missourians privacy in jeopardy, or risk having Missourians freedom to travel restricted even if they have never been convicted of a crime in a court of law.

It would be nice if our governor, attorney general, U.S. Senators, Congressmen and entire state legislature appealed to the Trump Administration to convince them to grant Missouri a permanent Real ID waiver so this no-win issue would be resolved. But I’m not holding my breath.