HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRYING TO ESTABLISH NATIONAL ID CARDS

The House of Representatives has passed tough new measures towards establishing a National Identification Card. The Senate is expected to go along, and President Bush will soon sign the measure into law. This means the lines at your local Department of Motor Vehicles are going to get longer. The House overwhelmingly passed this bill, ... it requires D.M.V.`s to confirm someone is in this country legally when they get a driver`s license. You`ll soon have to provide at least four forms of identification. Sponsors say this is an obvious long overdue fix that will prevent terrorists from getting a picture ID which allows them to do everything from boarding a plane, to opening a bank account, to buying a gun. Representative James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, said, "these previsions will hamper the ability of terrorists and criminal aliens to move freely through our society." Privacy advocates are concerned the legislation comes too close to creating a National Identification Card, since all of the driver`s information will be entered into databases that will be linked nationwide. Tim Sparapani of ACLU, says, "this is one stop shopping for idenity thieves. They can go to one place and get all your information at one time." There is also the issue of money...some lawmakers say this saddles states with yet another federal requirement without enough funding to pay for it. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says, "whatever you think of the idea, understand what a burden it places on the states, and there is no money to match the mandate." The Senate is expected to pass the bill next week, as part of a supplemental funding bill for the war in Iraq and Tsunami Relief. States have three years to comply.