WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 30 Apr 2002, Two House lawmakers will introduce a bill on Wednesday that promises to stoke up the contentious debate about creating what critics say is a de facto national identification system. Virginia Republican Rep. Tom Davis, and his neighbor and Democratic counterpart Jim Moran, will offer a bill that would set national standards for state-issued driver's licenses. It also would require states to issue high-tech ID cards equipped with a computer chip and "biometric" technology, such as fingerprint data or other unique identifiers.

The bill is the first concrete proposal to revamp state identification systems, at the federal level, since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania. Moran said the measure would reduce identity theft and help close the types of loopholes that allowed eight of the 19 hijackers to fraudulently obtain driver's licenses in his home state. "The driver's licenses that we carry with us to identify ourselves have lost credibility, and they are just too easy to replicate, steal and use fraudulently," Moran said. "You can make a strong case that the attacks of 9-11 would not have taken place if we'd had this system in place."

The legislation would allow states to search other states' driver records to verify an applicant's identity and driving history. The measure also would require states to make their IDs more resistant to counterfeiting, and would increase penalties for ID fraud. According to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, there are more than 200 different, valid forms of identification issued by states in circulation today. A recent poll commissioned by the AAMVA showed 77 percent of Americans favor modifying the current system of issuing driver's licenses and ID cards.

The thrust of the bill is similar to legislation being drafted by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., which has earned the support of the AAMVA and state law enforcement agencies. But the Moran-Davis bill includes a private-sector twist. The measure is based on a proposal outlined by the Progressive Policy Institute, a think-tank that espouses libertarian views on tech policy, but is an outgrowth of the Democratic Leadership Council, that favors private-sector involvement to help defray the costs of implementing such a system. The legislation would require state ID cards to include so-called "smart chips," that could store bank and debit card data, allowing consumers to use their ID cards in a variety of commercial applications. "This technology could be used in an array of self-service applications, meaning the card would pay for itself through productivity improvements in the economy," said PPI Vice President Robert Atkinson.

Civil liberties and privacy groups have formed a coalition to oppose efforts to overhaul state identification systems, saying such plans would expand the government's ability to track and profile its citizens. J. Bradley Jansen, deputy director of the Center for Technology Policy at the Free Congress Foundation, said fraudsters and terrorists would still find ways to beat the system. "The more you network these databases, the higher standards you need, and the security and privacy standards we have in place now in the states is not nearly good enough," Jansen said. "Standardizing a bad system simply exacerbates those problems." Critics also say the legislation would create a nationwide network that could be exploited by police, tapped by marketers and cracked by criminals.

"This bill will increase state and commercial power to track citizens, and do very little - if anything to combat terrorism," said Chris Hoofnagle, legislative counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "As you incorporate more features into the card beyond identity verification, it increases the profit motive and the desire to forge the card." The coalition favors strengthening the integrity of birth certificates and other "breeder documents" typically needed to obtain state ID cards. The legislation would give states six months to develop standards and another five years to implement them. The measure also would grant states $315 million in general funds to offset the costs of implementing such a system. Reported by Washtech.com, http://www.washtech.com . © 2002 The Washington Post Company http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176252.html