Legislative history

The Real ID Act started off as H.R. 418, which passed the House[1] and went stagnant. Representative James Sensenbrenner (R) of Wisconsin, the author of the original Real ID Act, then attached it as a rider on a military spending bill (H.R. 1268). The House of Representatives passed that spending bill with the Real ID rider 368-58,[2] and the Senate passed the joint House-Senate conference report on that bill 100-0. There was no debate whatsoever on this piece of legislation. President Bush signed it into law on May 11, 2005.

On March 2, 2007, it was announced that enforcement of the Act would be postponed for two years. The provisions of the bill will be delayed from going into effect until December 2009. On January 11, 2008, it was announced that the deadline has been extended again, until 2011, in hopes of gaining more support from states. On the same date the Department of Homeland Security released the final rule regarding the implementation of the driver's licenses provisions of the Real ID Act. A pdf of the final rule, as well as DHS Secretary Chertoff's press conference, in pdf transcript, audio and video formats, can be found at BiometricBits.com.

Minimum nationwide standards for state driver's licenses or ID cards, employment, and banking

In the United States, driver's licenses are issued by the states, not by the federal government. States also issue voluntary identification cards for non-drivers, and set the rules for what data is on the card and what documents must be provided to obtain one. States also maintain databases of licensed drivers and ID cardholders.

Driver's license implications

* The REAL ID Act's implications for driver's licenses and ID cards is detailed in Title II of the Act. Title II of REAL ID — “Improved Security for Driver’s License and Personal Identification Cards” — repeals the provisions of a December 2004 law that established a cooperative state-federal process to create federal standards for driver’s licenses and instead directly imposes prescriptive federal driver’s license standards.

The REAL ID Act Driver's License Summary details the following provisions of the Act's driver's license title:

* Repeal of 9/11 Commission Implementation Act DL/ID Provisions
* Minimum Standards for Federal Use
* DL/ID Document Standards
* Minimum DL/ID Issuance Standards
* Verification of Documents
* Immigration Requirements
* Security and Fraud Prevention Standards
* Data Retention and Storage
* Linking of Databases
* Grants to States
* Authority

After 2011, "a Federal agency may not accept, for any official purpose, a driver's license or identification card issued by a state to any person unless the state is meeting the requirements" specified in the REAL ID Act. States remain free to also issue non-complying licenses and IDs, so long as these have a unique design and a clear statement that they cannot be accepted for any Federal identification purpose. The federal Transportation Security Administration is responsible for security check-in at airports, so bearers of non-compliant documents would no longer be able to travel on common carrier aircraft without additional screening.

Employers would no longer be able to accept, or ultimately hire, bearers of non-compliant documents for employment.

Financial institutions would require compliant documents from all customers. Bearers of non-compliant documents would be denied financial or banking services.

People born on or after December 1, 1964, will have to obtain a REAL ID by December 1, 2014. Those born before December 1, 1964, will have until December 1, 2017 to obtain their REAL ID.

The national license/ID standards cover:

* What data must be included on the card;
* What documentation must be presented before a card can be issued; and
* How the states must share their databases.

Strictly speaking, many of these requirements are not new. They replace similar language in Section 7212 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (Pub.L. 108-458), which had not yet gone into effect before being repealed by the Real ID Act.

Data requirements

Each card must include, at a minimum, the person's full legal name, signature, date of birth, gender, driver's license or identification card number. It also includes a photograph of the person's face and the address of principal residence. It is required to have physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes. In North Carolina, these new security features include a hologram of a map of the entire North American continent.

It will use common machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements (the details of which are not spelled out, but left to the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation and the states, to regulate).

Documentation required before issuing a license or ID card

Before a card can be issued, the applicant must provide the following documentation:

* A photo ID, or a non-photo ID that includes full legal name and birthdate.
* Documentation of birthdate.
* Documentation of legal status and Social Security number
* Documentation showing name and principal residence address.

Digital images of each identity document will be stored in each state DMV database.