Despite the fact that a unanimous Senate — including then-Sen. Barack Obama — passed the Real ID Act, several senators recently introduced legislation known as the Pass ID Act, which promises to return the nation to pre-Sept. 11 dangers.Under the Pass ID legislation, about which the secretary of homeland security testified last week, states would no longer need to verify a person’s identity before issuing a driver’s license or identification card. They would not be required to resolve Social Security number mismatches; nor would they need to ensure the person does not possess duplicate or additional licenses or identification cards issued from other states.
The Pass ID Act would not fine-tune Real ID; it would neutralize or weaken numerous protections that Real ID provides.
