House backs major shift to electronic IDs

[nadinbrzezinski]

http://news.com.com/House+approves+electronic+ID+cards/2100-1028_3-5571898.html

House backs major shift to electronic IDs
Published: February 10, 2005, 5:46 PM PST
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

TrackBack Print E-mail TalkBack
The U.S. House of Representatives approved on Thursday a sweeping set of rules aimed at forcing states to issue all adults federally approved electronic ID cards, including driver's licenses.

Under the rules, federal employees would reject licenses or identity cards that don't comply, which could curb Americans' access to airplanes, trains, national parks, federal courthouses and other areas controlled by the federal government. The bill was approved by a 261-161 vote.

The measure, called the Real ID Act, says that driver's licenses and other ID cards must include a digital photograph, anticounterfeiting features and undefined "machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements" that could include a magnetic strip or RFID tag. The Department of Homeland Security would be charged with drafting the details of the regulation.


Republican politicians argued that the new rules were necessary to thwart terrorists, saying that four of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers possessed valid state-issued driver's licenses. "When I get on an airplane and someone shows ID, I'd like to be sure they are who they say they are," said Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, during a floor debate that started Wednesday.

-----------------------

Ain't this grand folks?

PAPERS please....

[mudderfudder77]

1. I'd be interested in the party breakdown for this vote... n/t

[LifeDuringWartime]

4. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll031.xml

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 31
(Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)

H R 418 YEA-AND-NAY 10-Feb-2005 2:41 PM
QUESTION: On Passage
BILL TITLE: REAL ID Act

Yeas Nays PRES NV
Republican 219 8 4
Democratic 42 152 7
Independent 1
TOTALS 261 161 11


---- YEAS 261 ---

Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Bachus
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Barton (TX)
Bass
Bean
Beauprez
Berry
Biggert
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehlert
Boehner
Bonilla
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boren
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd
Bradley (NH)
Brady (TX)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Calvert
Camp
Cannon
Cantor
Capito
Cardoza
Case
Castle
Chabot
Chandler
Chocola
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Cox
Cramer
Crenshaw
Cubin
Cuellar
Culberson
Cunningham
Davis (AL)
Davis (FL)
Davis (KY)
Davis (TN)
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
DeFazio
DeLay
Dent
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Edwards
Ehlers
Emerson
English (PA)
Everett
Fitzpatrick (PA)
Flake
Foley
Forbes
Ford
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gibbons
Gilchrest
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Gordon
Granger
Graves
Green (WI)
Gutknecht
Hall
Harris
Hart
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Hayworth
Hefley
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth
Hobson
Hoekstra
Holden
Hooley
Hostettler
Hulshof
Hunter
Hyde
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Istook
Jenkins
Jindal
Johnson (CT)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Kanjorski
Keller
Kelly
Kennedy (MN)
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline
Knollenberg
Kolbe
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Latham
LaTourette
Leach
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
Marshall
Matheson
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris
McNulty
Melancon
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Moran (KS)
Murphy
Musgrave
Myrick
Neugebauer
Ney
Northup
Norwood
Nunes
Nussle
Osborne
Otter
Oxley
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pickering
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Porter
Portman
Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Ramstad
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reynolds
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ross
Royce
Ryan (OH)
Ryan (WI)
Ryun (KS)
Salazar
Saxton
Schwarz (MI)
Scott (GA)
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shaw
Shays
Sherwood
Shimkus
Shuster
Simmons
Simpson
Skelton
Smith (TX)
Sodrel
Souder
Stearns
Strickland
Sullivan
Sweeney
Tancredo
Tanner
Taylor (MS)
Taylor (NC)
Terry
Thomas
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Walden (OR)
Walsh
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Weldon (PA)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (FL)

---- NAYS 161 ---

Abercrombie
Ackerman
Allen
Andrews
Baca
Baird
Baldwin
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boswell
Brady (PA)
Brown (OH)
Brown, Corrine
Capps
Capuano
Cardin
Carnahan
Carson
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Conyers
Crowley
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle
Emanuel
Engel
Etheridge
Evans
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Gonzalez
Green, Al
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Harman
Hastings (FL)
Higgins
Holt
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jefferson
Johnson, E. B.
Jones (OH)
Kaptur
Kennedy (RI)
Kildee
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kind
Kucinich
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lynch
Maloney
Markey
McCarthy
McCollum (MN)
McDermott
McGovern
McKinney
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Menendez
Michaud
Millender-McDonald
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murtha
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor
Paul
Payne
Pelosi
Pombo
Pomeroy
Price (NC)
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Ros-Lehtinen
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Sabo
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanders
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schwartz (PA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sherman
Slaughter
Smith (NJ)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Spratt
Stark
Tauscher
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Towns
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Van Hollen
Velázquez
Visclosky
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Wexler
Wilson (NM)
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Young (AK)

---- NOT VOTING 11 ---

Bartlett (MD)
Carter
Eshoo
Feeney
Ferguson
Green, Gene
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Honda
Sanchez, Loretta
Stupak

[mudderfudder77]

8. Thanks! n/t

[AG78]

5. Here

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll031.xml

[TahitiNut]

29. Ros-Lehtinen. Diaz-Balart, L., and Diaz-Balart, M. voted NAY???

Amazing. :crazy:

[BR_Parkway]

2. Since the 4 possessed valid state driver's licenses, weren't they

who they said they were? And wouldn't they have been issued whatever this new electronic (tracking?) thing is? So, lots of cash = zero results.

Hmmm, which major ReThug donors manufacture such a thing?

[applegrove]

7. I read somewhere that the 4 had driver's licenses that had years

I read somewhere that the 4 had driver's licenses that had years longer to expire - while their Visa's had already expired. The point is that they would only be able to get DL that expires at the same time as their Visa's if they had infiltrated after the new laws.

[papau]

3. PAPERS please....???? Nope - with RFID you broadcast your ID!

so the camera on the corner can ID the person being watched!

At least cell phone coverage will improve to accomodate the RFID technology!

:-(

[RC]

30. RFID can't work that way.

Do some research.

[papau]

34. Sorry - but while there is no "broadcast" , reading towers are but a

different way to end up in the same place.

Namely - as you pass the RFID is read

Granted the RFID does not broadcast by itself -

But it is a difference with no real meaning in terms of the BIG BROTHER 1984 aspect of forcing everyone to carry an RFID.

You might find the implanted in the body RFID discussion in the literature to be of interest - it eliminates the need for Bib Brother to trust you to carry your ID card!

smile - you are on Candid Camera!

:-)

:toast:

:-)

[RC]

35. To read RFID, the activator has to be close.

A few feet at best. Usually less. There is also the frequency they respond to and emit on. There is not a whole lot of empty spectrum any more. Reading a crowd from towers is pure science fiction.

[LinuxInsurgent]

36. what pisses me off...

is that it gives no choice to American citizens....if you don't conform, you don't fly...

I personally don't want to wear these IDs...but I got to travel...

Is the ACLU going to fight this?

[Occulus]

38. How big is an activator, and how cheap? n/t

[papau]

40. interesting - and rather good news! :-)

The Walmart plan was to read at check out AND to read at the doors - has the the latter has been dropped as not possible ?? (only of interest in terms of the number of feet is the max for pickup).

While I do not take much comfort from lack of spectrum since the spectrum the Gov wants it will take, the weak emitted signal not being picked up more than a few feet from the reader is a "good".

But we know that space tech allows weak signal pickup as long as background can be filtered out by the computers - granted at great expense in terms of equipement needed, and with a background noise level much more quiet than a crowd at a street corner with RFID's competing with all the other crap in the airwaves on other spectrum and competing with a few hundred responses for each RFID in the crowd at the given intersection on the given spectrum.

pure science fiction now is obviously true -

may it always be such.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Ron Paul on this

HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS

BEFORE THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 9, 2005


HR 418: A National ID Bill Masquerading as Immigration Reform


Mr. Speaker:


I rise in strong opposition to HR 418, the REAL ID Act. This bill purports to
make us safer from terrorists who may sneak

into the United States, and from other illegal immigrants. While I agree that
these issues are of vital importance, this bill will do very little to make
us more secure.


It will not address our real vulnerabilities. It will, however, make us much
less free. In reality, this bill is a Trojan horse. It pretends to offer
desperately needed border control in order to stampede Americans into sacrificing
what is uniquely American: Our Constitutionally Protected Liberty.


What is wrong with this bill?


The REAL ID Act establishes a national ID card by mandating that states
include certain minimum identification standards

on driver’s licenses. It contains no limits on the government’s power to
impose additional standards. Indeed, it gives authority to the Secretary of
Homeland Security to unilaterally add requirements as he sees fit.


Supporters claim it is not a national ID because it is voluntary. However,
any state that opts out will automatically make non-persons out of its citizens.


The citizens of that state will be unable to have any dealings with the
federal government because their ID will not be accepted. They will not be able to
fly or to take a train.


In essence, in the eyes of the federal government they will cease to exist.
It is absurd to call this voluntary.


Republican Party talking points on this bill, which claim that this is not a
national ID card, nevertheless endorse the idea that “the federal government
should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of
identification such as driver’s licenses.�


So they admit that they want a national ID but at the same time pretend that
this is not a national ID.


This bill establishes a massive, centrally-coordinated database of highly
personal information about American citizens: at a minimum their name, date of
birth, place of residence, Social Security number, and physical and possibly
other characteristics.


What is even more disturbing is that, by mandating that states participate in
the “Drivers License Agreement,� this bill creates a massive database of
sensitive information on American citizens that will be shared with Canada and
Mexico!


This bill could have a chilling effect on the exercise of our
constitutionally guaranteed rights.


It re-defines "terrorism" in broad new terms that could well include members
of firearms rights and anti-abortion groups, or other such groups as
determined by whoever is in power at the time.


There are no prohibitions against including such information in the database
as information about a person’s exercise of First Amendment rights or about a
person’s appearance on a registry of firearms owners.


This legislation gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to
expand required information on driver’s licenses, potentially including such
biometric information as retina scans, finger prints, DNA information, and even
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) radio tracking technology. Including such
technology as RFID would mean that the federal government, as well as the
governments of Canada and Mexico, would know where Americans are at all time of
the day and night.


There are no limits on what happens to the database of sensitive information
on Americans once it leaves the United States for Canada and Mexico - or
perhaps other countries.


Who is to stop a corrupt foreign government official from selling or giving
this information to human traffickers or even terrorists? Will this uncertainty
make us feel safer?


What will all of this mean for us?


When this new program is implemented, every time we are required to show our
driver’s license we will, in fact, be showing a national identification card.
We will be handing over a card that includes our personal and likely biometric
information, information which is connected to a national and international
database.


H.R. 418 does nothing to solve the growing threat to national security posed
by people who are already in the U.S. illegally. Instead, H.R. 418 states what
we already know: that certain people here illegally are "deportable." But it
does nothing to mandate deportation.


Although Congress funded an additional 2,000 border guards last year, the
administration has announced that it will only ask for an additional 210 guards.


Why are we not pursuing these avenues as a way of safeguarding our country?
Why are we punishing Americans by taking away their freedoms instead of making
life more difficult for those who would enter our country illegally?


H.R. 418 does what legislation restricting firearm ownership does. It
punishes law-abiding citizens. Criminals will ignore it. H.R. 418 offers us a false
sense of greater security at the cost of taking a gigantic step toward making
America a police state.


I urge my colleagues to vote “NO� on the REAL ID Act of 2005.

[crispini]

10. Do you have a link to Ron Paul's speech? nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. no, it was forwarded to me

I bet it is on his web page though

[satya]

9. Must be an easy way to disable the RFID and activate it only when required

I don't intend to become a human broadcast station.

[genieroze]

11. 666. eom

[Helga Scow Stern]

14. One more building block in the theocracy. n/t

[Helga Scow Stern]

12. Now I see what the Council for Excellence in Government

is partly about.

I was wondering what this clamor for internet government, internet democracy was about. This would be a first step.

http://excelgov.org/displayContent.asp?Keyword=abHomePage

--To promote e-government as a revolutionary tool for improving performance and better connecting people to government;

Is it connecting us to the government, or connecting them to us?

[doodadem]

15. "Nowhere to Hide"

Amy Goodman did an interview with author Robert O'Harrow yesterday on Democracy Now. Totally freaked me out, since I'm a real privacy nut. Very "Enemy of the State" stuff. I've got to get this book, so I can be justified in my paranoia. Just googled it, and here's what they say:

"In No Place to Hide, award-winning Washington Post reporter Robert O'Harrow, Jr., lays out in unnerving detail the post-9/11 marriage of private data and technology companies and government anti-terror initiatives to create something entirely new: a security-industrial complex. Drawing on his years of investigation, O'Harrow shows how the government now depends on burgeoning private reservoirs of information about almost every aspect of our lives to promote homeland security and fight the war on terror.

Consider the following: When you use your cell phone, the phone company knows where you are and when. If you use a discount card, your grocery and prescription purchases are recorded, profiled, and analyzed. Many new cars have built-in devices that enable companies to track from afar details about your movements. Software and information companies can even generate graphical link-analysis charts illustrating exactly how each person in a room is related to every other -- through jobs, roommates, family, and the like. Almost anyone can buy a dossier on you, including almost everything it takes to commit identity theft, for less than fifty dollars.

It may sound like science fiction, but it's the routine activity of the nation's fast-growing information industry and more, its new partner the U.S. government.
With unrivaled access, O'Harrow tells the inside stories of key players in this new world, from software inventors to counterintelligence officials. He reveals how the government is creating a national intelligence infrastructure with the help of private companies. And he examines the impact of this new security system on our traditional notions of civil liberties, autonomy, and privacy, and the ways it threatens to undermine some of our society's most cherished values, even while offering us a sense of security. This eye-opening examination takes readers behind the walls of secrecy and shows how we are rushing toward a surveillance society with few rules to guide and protect us. In this new world of high-tech domestic intelligence, there is literally no place to hide."

[Redstone]

24. You're not a "privacy nut..."

You're a realist.

Nobody needs to be a black-helicopter raving conspiracy theorist these days to have legitimate reasons to be very, very afraid.

Redstone

[Skip Intro]

16. RFID tags. Its not just identity, its tracking,..

The measure, called the Real ID Act, says that driver's licenses and other ID cards must include a digital photograph, anticounterfeiting features and undefined "machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements" that could include a magnetic strip or RFID tag. The Department of Homeland Security would be charged with drafting the details of the regulation.
-----------------

This pisses me off as much as it scares me.

Freedom my ass.

With only minimum data requirements, that means much more could be added.

Medical History?

Credit rating?

Wonder if this will be combined with an electronic voter registration card?

"Oh, I see you didn't vote for der fuhrer. Follow me please..."

[kcass1954]

22. Guess I'll be driving with just a photo copy of my license. eom

[icymist]

17. Individual States rights get dumped.

One more brick on the road to despotism. Hey everyone, you had better not be an in between transition transsexual because you'll never get your 'traveling papers'. By using fear, dogma, and poverty, liberty, truth, and justice withers.

on edit to create a better similie! :)

[jayfish]

18. This Is The Time To Use Thier...

own rhetoric against them. How about "Unfunded Federal Mandate" for starters.

Jay

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. I did not vote for this

hyou did not vote for this

Time to call them what they are TYRANTS

[kcass1954]

20. Just as scary - read section 102...

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c109:./temp/~c109ym5fHQ


SEC. 102. WAIVER OF LAWS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDERS.

Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:

`(c) Waiver-

`(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.

`(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction--

`(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or

`(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.'.


Chertoff alone will have the power to suspend laws with NO ALLOWANCE FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW. Now I understand that the law states that this is only in connection with the construction of the San Diego border fence. But you know this administration as well as I do - they'll tell us that the "intent" was not to limit it just to this one teeny-tiny little project, and they need to expand it. And they will. And the judges that *co appointed will let them get away with it. And you and I are fucked again!

No offense to anyone, but there is no one in this entire world that I trust with that much power!

[Skidmore]

21. Ahh, "the mark of the beast" is upon us.

[rodeodance]

23. Baldwin from WI said NAY--I will write her a thank you note

[Trillo]

25. RFID tags?

I see a new market for dense-metal wallets....

[Redstone]

31. dense-metal wallets....

Or large magnets...that'll take care of the chips real quick.

Redstone

[KissMeKate]

26. so we can hunt you down wherever you are!

police state creep.

[VegasWolf]

27. Now you can be tracked erverywhere. Wi-FI networks are set

up everywhere in cities so that wireless laptop users
can connect. The WI-FI networks can track passive RFID chips.
Privacy is no more. Orwell would be proud.

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/wireless/index.php#rfid-for-kids-still-controversial-032803

[icymist]

28. A link to the Clerks Office of The House:

http://clerk.house.gov/

Scroll down to the search engine and type in the bill 'H. R. 418' to read the full text.

[struggle4progress]

32. Using technology to track Americans like barcoded products. eom

[bushcrab]

33. Please, just bury the chip in my head,

and tattoo the barcode on my hand. My wallet's got enough shit in it already.

[tavalon]

37. I have a technology question

It's clear that the mark of the beast is coming in this new national identity card thing and it's likely to have RFID in it, so I'm wondering if those lead bags that people used to protect their film will foil the trackers?

[NYC]

39. I'm wondering the same thing.

There may be a new market for lead card cases.

[Redstone]

41. Even a sheet of aluminum foil

will do it, as long as it's wrapped around all sides of the card. It's called a Faraday cage.

Or you could just rub the card on a magnet (the one behind a speaker should do the job).

Redstone