Senate Judiciary Committee Rebukes Chertoff For "Bullying" States To Comply With Real ID Program

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Homeland Security Department Sec. Michael Chertoff was rebuked by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for pressuring states into implementing the Real ID law.

"There are benefits to be gained by encouraging the States to make improvements in the identification they issue; everyone wants that. But I share the view that far greater cooperation would have been gained by partnering with the states, rather than imposing a costly federal mandate," Committee chair Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said. "Bullying the states is not the answer, nor threatening their citizens' right to travel. From Maine to Montana, States have said no."

"We ought to engage in a fairer, more productive negotiated rule-making with the states," he added later as Chertoff answered questions including those about immigration detention practices and backlogs in the naturalization process for new citizens.

Several states including Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and South Carolina have opposed the implementation of the Real ID Act of 2005. State officials as well as civil rights groups cite the costs of complying with the law, privacy issues and the vulnerabilities of a national ID system to counterfeiters. A March 31 deadline for states that postponed enforcing the law passed with the Homeland Department announcing that all states had made the required security upgrades to comply.

The Real ID program will require people traveling by air and doing business with federal offices to present identification that pass certain security requirements. It also forces states to tighten rules governing the issuance of drivers' licenses. Implementation of the law begins May 11.