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Real ID: Huge Challenges for States By ELLEN PERLMAN Governing.com SAN DIEGO - States will be unable to get "Real ID" implemented in the time the federal government expects, and the cost will be much higher than estimated, said technology officials at a session here at the annual conference of the National Assocation of State Chief Information Officers. Real ID is the federal government's requirement for a strong, state-issued identity card that the government hopes can thwart terrorism and stop people from using forged documents to get driver's licenses and other official IDs. But states aren't hopeful about being able to do what the federal government has asked them to do any time soon, and panel members grumbled about the way Congress dumped the responsibility for Real ID on states. "It's really a national responsibility," said Larry Dzieza, budget director for Washington State's Department of Licensing. "This is an unfunded mandate." Although state officials may agree with the idea of a stronger identity card, the measure that Congress pushed through, attached to a tsunami-relief bill, is a disappointment to many. "Is this the Real ID we wanted? Hell no," said Betty Serian, deputy secretary for public safety administration for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Still, they recognize that the need to verifying that people are who they claim they are is important. "I'm angry that we haven't done enough to improve our licensing process," Serian said. States' own experiences with technology make them pessimistic about getting a system in place in the three years Congress expects. "We're into year 11 of a three-year computer upgrade," said Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap. Putting in place the envisioned Real ID system in three years is "absurd," agreed Dzieza. "Five to 10 to 15 years is more like it." Dunlap added that, with the widely divergent driver's-license protocols that exist now and some states still without digital licenses, "trying to visualize a 50-state integrated database is quite a remarkable thing to do." In Washington State, if people have to bring three documents in to a motor vehicles office to get the new licenses, Internet and mail-in service for licenses and renewals will go "out the window," said Dzieza. And that's not the only problem: More than 5.5 million documents will be created that there is no database for, he said. All of that information will have to be secured, and verifying the documents by contacting states, cities, hospitals and other document-issuing entities will be an enormous task, said Dzieza, noting that there are 6,000 birth-certificate-issuing entities in the United States alone. Another example of the problems states will face is that fact that there are more than 200 forms of ID in this country, and many people here were born in countries that no longer exist, such as the former Soviet Union. How will states verify their identity? Dzieza thinks he'd have to hire 500 people in Washington State to get all the information processed. Serian wants her state to be able to distinguish between people who have existing licenses and people who are getting licenses for the first time. She does not think the state should have to re-credential citizens who have been licensed in the state since they were 16 years old. "It would be a political nightmare," she said, and potentially could cost $110 million. One concern is whether Real ID will achieve the kind of security people expect. "None of this going to stop terrorism," said Dunlap, though it might be effective in stopping amateurs who now can easily and cheaply forge driver's licenses and documents needed to get them. But that's not who Real ID is targeted at. But improving drivers licenses isn't only about terrorism, Serian said. It's also about highway safety. Drunk drivers now can hop from state to state and get new licenses. The benefits of effective Real ID would be improved highway and police-officer safety through better state communication, she believes. And if Real ID works, said Dunlap, it will lead to modernization of license services that states have not been been able to do up to this point, and maybe states will get better at collaborating with one another. "The promise of the technology is great," Dunlap said. "There are some really good reasons to do something like this." Copyright C 2005, Congressional Quarterly, Inc. <http://www.cq.com/> Reproduction without written permission is prohibited. Governing, City & State and Governing.com are registered trademarks of Congressional Quarterly, Inc. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! 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