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What is the REAL ID Act?

The REAL ID Act is a law passed by Congress in 2005. It makes the States change the way they issue ID cards and driver licenses. It imposes numerous requirements on the States, and more importantly the citizens of those states. Here in Florida, what this means is when you go to renew your driver license or change your name (such as due to divorce, marriage, etc.) you have to provide a laundry list of documents. These include but are not limited to certified copies of your birth certificate or passport, your Social Security card, proof of address such as your power/utility bill, your mortgage coupon book, etc.

All of the details have been laid out by the State of Florida on a website called Gather Go Get. Once you have provided this information, it is then scanned into a database and retained by the state. By Federal law (the REAL ID Act), this information is to be shared with other states.

A history of the REAL ID Act (information courtesy of GovTrack)
The REAL ID Act started life in 2005 as H.R. 418, a bill in Congress. It was introduced in January 2005 by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI5). Even though it had 140 co-sponsors, it was never enacted.

On February 10, 2005, this bill passed in the House of Representatives by roll call vote. The totals were 261 Ayes, 161 Nays, 11 Present/Not Voting. Click here of vote Details. The vote was not really on partisan lines, with 219 Republicans and 42 Democrats voting for it and 152 Democrats, 8 Republicans, and 1 Independent voting against it.

This bill never became law. This bill was proposed in a previous session of Congress. Sessions of Congress last two years, and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that haven't passed are cleared from the books. Members often reintroduce bills that did not come up for debate under a new number in the next session.

The Republican leadership did not give up the idea. It re-emerged hidden within the "Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005", H.R. 1268. This bill was sponsored by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA41). Even though it had no co-sponsors, it passed the House on March 16, 2005 by a vote of 388-43 with 3 not present or not voting. Of the nay votes, 39 were Democrats, 3 Republicans, and 1 Independent. It passed the Senate on April 11, 2005 with a vote of 99-0 with one not present or not voting. It was signed into law by former President George W. Bush on May 11, 2005.

Adoption in Florida

The Florida Legislature addressed the REAL ID Act in 2008. Senate Bill 1992, introduced by Republican Senator Carey Baker on February 14, 2008, made changes to much of the existing driver license law. The bill passed the Senate for the first time on April 23, 2008 with a vote of 37 yeas, 2 nays, and 1 not voting. The bill passed the House on April 30, 2008 with a vote of 112 yeas, 2 nays, and 6 not voting. The amended bill passed the Senate for the second time on May 1, 2008 38-0 with two not voting. The bill was approved by Governor Charlie Crist on June 17, 2008.

In the "Bill analysis and fiscal impact statement" produced by the professional staff of the Criminal Justice Committee, the basis for the changes to the driver license sections of the law is shown to be the Federal REAL ID Act.

The DMV and your personal ID information

The weakest link in any computer system is the human element. The Florida DMV does not have a good history with security of your personal ID information. As recently as 2009, a ring was arrested in South Florida that included seven (7) corrupt DMV employees that were selling fake driver licenses.

The State of Florida was sued, again in 2009, for improperly selling personal ID information in violation of Federal law (the driver privacy act). The state wrongly disclosed some 30 million records for a fee between May 2003 and October 2004, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The State admitted it had broken this law, but once this information is released, you cannot get it back.

Legislative solution

Our initial aim was to file suit and overturn the law, but we could not raise enough money to do so. Many of us have seen this law for what it is: Unconstitutional, and an invasion of our privacy. We have asked our legislators to help us with repealing the law, but our requests have fallen on deaf ears. After the 2010 election, this appears to be changing. We've prepared proposed legislation to repeal REAL ID in Florida and will be meeting with our legislators to get it filed.

Our legislators refused to do anything about this in the 2011 session. We will try again next session, and are still open to filing suit, as this would be the most direct method to overturn the law.

What you can do

We need as many Floridians as possible to call upon their elected state officials to support our bills. Also consider joining our Facebook group, which is linked on the right side of this page. As with any other issue, if enough of us care to get involved, we can make something happen regardless of who is in elected office.