BILL NUMBER: AJR 51 INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Nava MARCH 10, 2008 Relative to the REAL ID Act of 2005. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AJR 51, as introduced, Nava. REAL ID Act of 2005: implementation. This measure would urge the California Congressional delegation to support measures to repeal the REAL ID Act of 2005 or to at least delay its implementation until such time as its costs are federally funded and amendments are made to reduce its costs and administrative burdens on the states and to preserve essential states' rights and the civil rights and liberties of American drivers. Fiscal committee: yes. WHEREAS, In May 2005, the Congress of the United States passed the REAL ID Act of 2005 (REAL ID) as part of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief Act, 2005 (Public Law 109-13), which was signed into law on May 11, 2005, and which becomes fully effective on May 11, 2008; and WHEREAS, REAL ID was passed without sufficient deliberation by Congress and never received a hearing by any congressional committee or any vote solely on its own merits; and WHEREAS, REAL ID prohibits, by 2014, federal agencies and federally regulated commercial aircrafts from accepting a driver's license or identification card issued by a state that has not fully complied with REAL ID; and WHEREAS, REAL ID will be a costly unfunded mandate on the state, with the National Governors' Association, the National Conference of State Legislators, and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators estimating that REAL ID will cost at least $11 billion nationally over the next five years; and WHEREAS, Implementation of REAL ID could cost the State of California in the neighborhood of $500 million at a time when the state is grappling with an estimated $14 billion budget deficit; and WHEREAS, REAL ID will effectively reverse the state's efforts to reduce licensees' interactions with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, because its complex verification process will preclude renewals by mail or via the Internet; and WHEREAS, REAL ID will thus likely place enormous burdens on consumers seeking a new or, a renewal of their, driver's license, including longer lines, higher costs, and increased document requests and waiting periods; and WHEREAS, California, under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, has always exercised its exclusive power to establish standards and regulations for the issuance of California state driver's licenses and California state identification cards; and WHEREAS, REAL ID wrongly coerces states into doing the federal government's bidding by threatening to refuse to the citizens of noncomplying states the privileges and immunities enjoyed by the citizens of other states; and WHEREAS, REAL ID mandates that California link parts of its database to the departments of motor vehicles of all other states, in effect creating a single shared national database containing information on every American driver that exposes every state to the information security weaknesses of every other state and threatens the privacy of every American; and WHEREAS, The Federal Trade Commission estimates that 10 million Americans are victims of identity theft annually and these thieves are increasingly targeting motor vehicle departments, and REAL ID could facilitate the crime of identity theft by making the personal information of all Americans including name, date of birth, gender, driver's license or identification card number, digital photograph, address, and signature accessible from tens of thousands of locations; and WHEREAS, The "common machine-readable technology" required by REAL ID could convert state-issued driver licenses and identification cards into tracking devices, allowing computers to note and record a person's whereabouts each time he or she is identified; and WHEREAS, At least 17 other states have passed legislation that, to one degree or another, opposes the implementation of REAL ID; and WHEREAS, More than 600 organizations opposed the passage of REAL ID; and WHEREAS, The federal government has failed to show any measurable evidence that the implementation of REAL ID will make our borders more secure and better protect our citizens from terrorism; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California supports the government of the United States in its campaign against terrorism and affirms the commitment of the United States that the campaign not be waged at the expense of states' rights or the essential civil rights or liberties of residents of this country that are protected under the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and be it further Resolved, That the Legislature urges the California Congressional delegation to support measures to repeal REAL ID or at least to delay its implementation until such time as its implementation costs are federally funded and amendments are made to reduce its costs and administrative burdens on the state and to preserve essential states' rights and the civil rights and liberties of American drivers; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the Senate, each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States, the Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice, and the Governor of California.