Driver’s license proposal worries Maine delegation

AUGUSTA – Maine drivers could find the cost of homeland security is going to affect their wallet, and what is in it. Provisions in the House version of the intelligence overhaul legislation could lead to expensive high-tech driver’s licenses and identification cards that include such identifiers as a fingerprint or eye print.

“If we have to implement some of the high-tech things they are talking about, it’s going to cost a lot more for a license,” Maine Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky said Friday. “We can’t put a number on it because we don’t know what they will pick, but it will have to be more expensive.”

Mainers currently pay $30 for a six-year driver’s license. The current photo license has several anti-tampering provisions, Gwadosky said, and is more secure than licenses in many states. But, he said, few states have the ability to check vital records databases for birth certificates to make sure they are legitimate, and that is one of the proposals in the House measure.

“We are very concerned about all of this developing into an unfunded mandate,” he said. “This could have a broad impact if the House provisions prevail.”

For example, in addition to all of the computer hardware and software to provide for instant vital records checks, it is unclear how the new card would be used by law enforcement in a field situation. Many police cruisers carry laptop computers to access traffic records, but no one is ready to guess how much it would cost to add a device to allow police to check the authenticity of a driver’s license or identity card.

Sen. Susan Collins is the lead Senate negotiator on the conference committee that has yet to meet. She said last week that the Senate-passed version of the intelligence agency overhaul legislation sets up a process to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of various license and state-issued identification card requirements.

“There is a problem with licenses being counterfeited,” she said, “but I am always very concerned when the federal government imposes an unfunded mandate on the states, and it strikes me that that is what this is.”

Collins said the study language, if it survives the conference committee, will allow a thorough examination of technologies that can cost-effectively make driver’s licenses nearly impossible to counterfeit. She said while there is a clear need to improve license security, she is concerned about using “unproven high-tech” solutions to the problem.

“This is still evolving technology, and we don’t know what it will cost to implement,” Collins said.

The bill does not give the secretary of homeland security the power to order the states to adopt the standards developed by the agency. But, after a transition period, the measure would allow the secretary to issue rules requiring agency-approved licenses or identification cards for travel at airports or other transportation facilities.

“People like to fly. They have gotten used to it,” Maine Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Zach Heiden said Friday. “This really is a national identity card being adopted through the back door.”

Heiden said there is a need to improve security throughout the country, but that most Americans do not want additional security if it is at the price of their civil liberties. He said improved enforcement of existing laws should be the first step, not intrusive policies that may not improve security.

“The hijackers and murderers that attacked us on 9-11 had obtained false social security numbers,” he said, “so they then could have been able to get one of these high-tech ID cards that would have shown they were somebody else and bypassed security. In a way, this would make us less safe.”

Collins said she is very concerned that some in the House seem to want to use the driver’s license provision to create a national identity card. She said she would oppose that in the conference committee.

“We need to strike a balance here,” she said. “I have a lot of concerns about this provision. By and large, I think the Senate bill did a good job striking a balance between security and civil liberties.”

Sen. Olympia Snowe said the 9-11 commission emphasized the importance of developing adequate identification procedures, but she is not convinced the expensive, high-tech approach of the House is the correct one.

“I believe the Senate version of the intelligence reform bill takes the right approach by establishing federal standards to prevent state driver’s license fraud while assessing the benefits and costs on the states,” she said Friday. “This is reasonable, as the last thing the federal government should do is establish a mandate for the states to follow without providing the necessary resources.”

Both of Maine’s House members, Rep. Tom Allen and Rep. Mike Michaud, voted for a motion that would have adopted the Senate measure, but it failed on a party line vote.

The first meeting of the conference committee to negotiate the differences between the two measures has not been set.