8 years ago
12
In Three Months Over 30 Million Americans Won't Be Able To Travel Without A Passport -
Air passengers across the U.S. benefit from the use of driver’s licenses as authoritative identification when travelling domestically but that looks set to soon change. U.S. citizens from New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Louisiana and New Hampshire or American Samoa will no longer be allowed to fly any airline using their driver’s license. Beginning 2016, travelers…
Continue Reading
http://americans.org
Join the Discussion
TSA and (by extension) DHS has been such an utter shit show from the beginning. Wasteful, ineffective, useless.
I believe that disparity in standards for drivers licences has been an issue for quite a while as well as the disconnect between state to state DMVs. I gather that they are using this situation to legally push states to make changes toward standardization, that have been hard to push forward in the past. I remember talking to a DMV worker in Texas that said the disconnect between states was so drastic 5 years ago, that it was possible to have lost your licence in one state and manage to get one in another. She also mentioned that they were working to fix that by standardization but that some states would not comply. I find it interesting that something like this is happening now. It seems like a strong arm tactic to get the public involved and upset. I picture a scenario where they asked for compliance and then threatened to force compliance and then finally found a way to make good on the threat with a deadline. I have an active imagination though. I guess the gears of progress turn slowly.
I just honestly want to know why these DLs don't meet standards. And, instead of completely changing the rule and inconveniencing millions, why not just change the standard for the DLs?
At least in Louisiana, our dear and beloved governor (and completely hopeless "presidential candidate") Bobby Jindal is trying to make this into a state's rights issue:
I agree. Why cause more problems?
The Real ID Act as written by Sensenbrenner (R WI) includes language that allows for the writing in of further requirements such as: retinal scans and also the inclusion of financial information such as bank account so that you would pay for gas with your ID. These are not inacted yet but the way it is written they could be added at any time. So that's why the states are railing against it. Wisconsin used to be progressive, this is a last vestige of it.
I did not know that,thanks for adding.
The idea is to put a chip in the ID and require an individual to always carry it with them. Then, if a bad guy had a real ID they could in THEORY pinpoint his location with a satellite. (or drone) Or can track his location by seeing how many sensors he has passed in traveling. It's the same kind of 'strip' that's in money now (hold it up to the light once to see it) This is a way to electronically count how much money you have in your pocket at say, an airport. Anyone with over X amount of cash on them at an airport is pulled aside and questioned. And so a National ID while having merits to security, could also be used to destroy civil liberties.
I live in Ohio and here is a bill coming up where they want to use your license as a passport for Canada. I have not heard anything about the bill since July
National ID
This is just disgusting, and upsetting. When I lived in Iowa for a few years, I watched them print my new Iowa drivers license out on a machine that I'm pretty sure was the same one used by my college to issue college IDs, and then just hand it to me. Meanwhile, New York always required a separate department to print the IDs that look very difficult to forge, with all sorts of security features on it, and then mail it to you after a few days. How is Iowa's legal and my New York one not?
So now, the government says that not only do I have to allow myself to either be seen naked by a complete stranger or legally molested to prove my innocent intentions when getting on a domestic flight, now I need a passport as well.
Or, maybe they can use their security money wisely and simply train TSA agents in how to properly read drivers licenses. Or, maybe we can save a ton of money each year and abolish the TSA and hire actual trained people to run security who can do their jobs without humiliating normal Americans.
Thank god i live in Texas feller