Mr. President, I rise to speak about an issue that was raised by the amendment offered by Senator Collins to this homeland security bill dealing with the REAL ID Program, a program that is ostensibly designed to improve standards for security and eligibility for a driver’s license. One of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission was that America needs to find a way to improve the issuance of driver’s licenses, a process which takes place daily in States all across the country and produces a form of identification used for various purposes, in order to ensure that this system is as secure and consistent as it can possibly be.

I very much support those recommendations. In fact, in 2004, Congress sent to the President an intelligence reform bill that included a new, strong, well-defined process for improving those standards for security and eligibility, a negotiated rulemaking process, that brought the interested parties together.

Who are the interested parties? States that issue the driver’s licenses, the motor vehicle departments we have all visited from time to time, the privacy advocates, the Department of Homeland Security, and other groups. All those entities that have a shared interest in improving the way driver’s licenses are issued, improving the standards for eligibility, improving the standards for security and verification so that fraudulent activity is more easily identified and prevented.

It was a good process, a sound process, but unfortunately, as Senator Collins and other have pointed out in this debate, back in 2005, during a debate on an appropriation bill, there was a provision included that struck down this negotiated process, that cut the States out of the process, that superseded all those efforts and simply said to the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Government, you decide the standards, you decide the criteria, and then simply require the States to comply.

In Washington “speak,” that is called a big unfunded mandate from the Federal Government for the States to do something without any support of funds to actually implement the decision. It is never a good idea to impose such a stark unfunded mandate. Equally important, that kind of federalized process takes away an important responsibility that the States have historically had and I believe they should maintain.

We shouldn’t be taking away the responsibility of the States to issue driver’s licenses. We shouldn’t be taking away the responsibility for managing this information. We want to make this is a better process, we want to improve those standards, but we should not be cutting the States out and moving toward a national identity card system, which I think is fundamentally unnecessary.

Senator Collins, recognizing these flaws in the REAL ID Program, came forward with an amendment that at least moves us back toward a rulemaking that listens to the States, that listens to local stakeholders, that listens to the department of motor vehicles across the country. I think at the end of the day that kind of inclusive process will result in better standards that are less costly, that are more easily implemented, and that ultimately can be carried through more quickly than any unfunded mandate ever could.

Senator Akaka and I have introduced legislation to fully repeal the REAL ID Act and bring us back to the negotiated rulemaking that we had in 2004. I think that would be the best solution because the applicable provisions of that 2004 intelligence reform bill were well crafted, well thought out, supported by both the States and Federal Government and made great progress. But what Senator Collins has proposed, in delaying the implementation of these rules and bringing back State participants, privacy advocates, and other stakeholders, is certainly a step in the right direction. I very much hope the administration is committed and sincere in the statement they have made that they understand that States need to be part of this process.

I support very much what Senator Collins is trying to so. I hope as our colleagues listen to this debate they recognize that improving security and eligibility standards for driver’s licenses does not mean that we have to take rights and responsibilities away from the States. It does not mean that we have to create a national ID card. It does not mean that we have to have a national database on every driver in America. We can do these things in a way that respects the rights of States, that makes us all more secure, and that is consistent with the 9/11 Commission report.

I thank both the chairman and the ranking member for allowing me the time to speak. I certainly hope that we continue to proceed to adopt the Collins amendment, and I will certainly continue to speak out on this issue with my colleagues, such as Senator Akaka and Senator Alexander and others, who recognized, not this year or last year, but back in 2005 when this program was forced upon us, that REAL ID simply does not take America in the right direction.

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