BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  SB 60
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           REPLACE  - 09/11/2007

          SENATE THIRD READING
          SB 60 (Cedillo)
          As Amended August 31, 2007
          Majority vote 

           SENATE VOTE  :24-15  
           
           TRANSPORTATION      12-0        APPROPRIATIONS      9-6         
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Nava, Duvall, Carter,     |Ayes:|Leno, Caballero, Davis,   |
          |     |DeSaulnier, Galgiani,     |     |DeSaulnier, Huffman,      |
          |     |Houston, Huff, Coto,      |     |Karnette, Krekorian, Ma,  |
          |     |Portantino, Ruskin,       |     |De Leon                   |
          |     |Solorio, Soto             |     |                          |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |Nays:|Walters, Emmerson, La     |
          |     |                          |     |Malfa, Lieu, Nakanishi,   |
          |     |                          |     |Sharon Runner             |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           
          SUMMARY  :  Requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to  
          issue driver's licenses that are compliant with the federal Real  
          ID Act within a specified timeframe.  Specifically,  this bill  :  

          1)Declares legislative intent to meet or exceed the standards of  
            the federal Real ID Act of 2005 regarding driver's licenses  
            and identification (ID) cards, including those licenses  
            authorized by federal law that permit driving, but cannot be  
            used for federal ID purposes.  

          2)Requires driver's licenses and ID cards issued by DMV to be in  
            compliance with Section 202 of Title II of the federal Real ID  
            Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-13).  

          3)Requires DMV, no later than 240 days after the federal  
            Secretary of Homeland Security approves the state's  
            implementation plan of the federal Real ID Act, to issue to  
            applicants who meet the required standards, driver's licenses  
            that permit driving and are acceptable by a federal agency for  
            any official purpose.  








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          4)Requires DMV, within the same timeframe, to issue driver's  
            licenses that permit driving, but are not acceptable for  
            federal ID or for any other official federal purposes, to  
            those applicants who do not meet the full licensure  
            requirements of the federal Real ID Act.  

          5)Prohibits a peace officer from detaining or arresting a person  
            solely on the belief that the person is an unlicensed driver,  
            unless the officer has reasonable cause to believe that the  
            person driving is under 16 years of age.  

          6)Specifies that the inability to obtain a driver's license does  
            not abrogate or diminish in any respect the legal requirement  
            of a driver in this state to obey the motor vehicle laws of  
            this state, including laws with respect to licensing, motor  
            vehicle registration, and financial responsibility.  

          7)Makes provisions #5) and 6) above effective upon the receipt  
            by the Secretary of State of a notice from DMV that it is  
            issuing federal Real ID Act-compliant driver's licenses.  

          8)Repeals, at that same time, an existing statute that makes it  
            a misdemeanor to knowingly assist in obtaining a driver's  
            license or ID card for a person whose presence in the United  
            States (U.S.) is not authorized under federal law.  

          9)Specifies that such repeal may not be construed to forgive or  
            legalize previously prohibited conduct that was committed  
            prior to the repeal date.  

          10)  Makes it a misdemeanor, as of the repeal date specified  
            above, to knowingly assist in obtaining a driver's license, ID  
            card, or any other document for another person in violation of  
            the federal Real ID Act.  

           EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Requires applicants for driver's licenses and ID cards to  
            provide their Social Security numbers (SSNs) and proof of  
            their legal presence to DMV.  

          2)Requires DMV to verify the legal presence of driver's license  
            applicants.  Pending that verification, DMV may issue a  








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            temporary license.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Senate Appropriations  
          Committee, this bill is expected to encourage the estimated 2.2  
          million undocumented immigrants of driving age in California to  
          apply for a driver's license or ID card.  DMV estimates  
          approximately two million additional applications in the first  
          18 months following implementation.  DMV estimates costs to  
          process new undocumented immigrant applications to be $80-$107  
          million over three years, with offsetting fee revenue gain of up  
          to $55 million.  

          Require all existing license holders to visit a DMV field office  
          to apply for a federal Real ID compliant driver's license.  DMV  
          would have to suspend its renewal-by-mail and  
          renewal-by-Internet programs for good drivers who normally would  
          not have to visit a field office for 15 years.  Currently,  
          approximately 2.8 million persons apply for an original or  
          renewal driver's license in person.  This bill would result in  
          an additional annual workload of two million customers over five  
          years following implementation.  DMV estimates costs to  
          re-certify all current drivers and new applicants to be over  
          $500 million over five years, with offsetting fee revenue gains  
          of a similar magnitude.  

          DMV indicates that much of the up-front costs include $13  
          million for a minimum of 10 new facilities, each with two-year  
          leases of $1.3 million, significant computer programming, and  
          hiring and training over 600 new staff to handle the increased  
          workload, all of which must be in place prior to implementation  
          and cannot be financed with application fees.  DMV would require  
          a multi-million dollar appropriation to implement this bill.  

           COMMENTS  :  Since 2005, all states have been on notice that they  
          must comply with the federal Real ID Act in order for the  
          licenses and ID cards that they issue are to be accepted as  
          identification for federal purposes, such as boarding an  
          aircraft or entering a federal building.  According to DMV, "All  
          states must begin issuing federally compliant identification  
          documents no later than May 11, 2008.  California's full  
          compliance with the federal Real ID Act would require changes to  
          existing statutes that govern the requirements for and issuance  
          of driver licenses, identification cards, and the production of  
          the cards.  Additionally, the federal Real ID Act will require a  








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          rulemaking process, the result of which will be a set of  
          regulations identifying additional provisions which state driver  
          licenses, identification cards and issuance processes and  
          procedures must comply."  

          DMV has identified the following requirements in the federal  
          Real ID Act as necessitating modification to the statutes  
          governing the issuance of driver's licenses and ID cards.  (Once  
          final implementing regulations are adopted by the federal  
          Department of Homeland Security (DHS), additional changes will  
          likely be identified.):

          1)Requiring documentation showing the licensee's name and  
            address of principal residence.  

          2)Employing technology to capture digital images of identify  
            source documents so the images can be retained in electronic  
            storage in a transferable format for 10 years.  

          3)Refusing to issue a driver license or ID card to a person  
            holding a driver's license issued by another state.  

          4)Including physical security features on driver's licenses and  
            ID cards designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or  
            duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes and to  
            provide a common machine-readable technology with defined  
            minimum data elements.  

          5)Limiting the validity of all driver's licenses and ID cards  
            that are not issued on a temporary basis to a period that does  
            not exceed eight years.  

          6)Limiting the validity of a federal Real ID Act-compliant  
            driver's license or ID card to the period of time of an  
            immigrant or non-immigrant alien's authorized stay in the U.S.  
            or, if there is no definite end to the period of authorized  
            stay, for a period of one year.  

          Draft federal regulations recently released by DHS include  
          provisions permitting states that are making a good faith  
          effort to implement the federal Real ID Act, but that cannot  
          reasonably comply by the May 2008 deadline, to request a delay  
          not to extend beyond January 1, 2010.  In DMV's opinion, "Even  
          if California were to decide to request some period of delay,  








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          DHS would expect to see that reasonable steps had been taken by  
          the state to move toward compliance."  

          While the federal Real ID Act presents a very compelling  
          incentive to achieve nationwide compliance (i.e., its  
          insistence that driver's licenses issued after next May are not  
          good for federal identification purposes unless they are  
          "federal Real ID compliant") the federal Real ID Act and  
          California's efforts to achieve compliance raise a number of  
          substantial and troubling issues.  

          Cost:  DMV's preliminary analysis has already identified  
          implementation costs of at least one-half billion dollars,  
          little or none of which is anticipated to be reimbursed by the  
          federal government.  

          Privacy:  The American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes this  
          bill for a number of reasons, contends that implementation of  
          the federal Real ID Act poses serious privacy concerns.   
          "federal Real ID will make drivers' license information  
          accessible from tens of thousands of locations across the  
          country?Requiring the machine-readable elements of the drivers'  
          license to be standardized enables the private sector to collect  
          and save this information.  Bars swiping licenses to collect  
          personal data on customers will be just the tip of the iceberg  
          as every convenience store learns to grab that data and sell it  
          to data aggregators like ChoicePoint.  This data will become  
          part of existing private sector databases not subject even to  
          the limited privacy rules in effect for the government.  It is  
          not clear how federal regulations will impact existing  
          California state law protecting drivers' license data."  

          Customer convenience:  Draft federal regulations call for all  
          license applicants, both for original and renewal licenses, as  
          of May 2008, to produce for DMV documents that verify their  
          identity (most typically a birth certificate).  It is even  
          possible that licensees who comply with this requirement will  
          have to re-verify their identities on a periodic basis as a  
          condition of subsequent renewals.)  Under current law, licensees  
          with good driving records may renew their license by mail for  
          two consecutive five-year periods, essentially requiring them to  
          renew in person only once every 15 years.  Should California  
          comply with the federal Real ID Act as its implementation is  
          presently envisioned, all current licensees will have to visit  








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          DMV offices at least the first time their license expires after  
          May 2008 in order to present this documentation.  As a practical  
          matter, this will not only inconvenience a large number of  
          licensees, but it also threatens to overwhelm already stressed  
          DMV field offices.  

          Security:  The overriding rationale for the federal Real ID Act  
          and its attendant costs and inconvenience is to make the  
          driver's license a more reliable document with which to  
          establish a person's true identity and thus to raise the level  
          of domestic security in an age of terrorism and identity theft.   
          Some observers have questioned whether the federal Real ID Act  
          truly achieves that goal.  In this vein, it has been noted that,  
          had the federal Real ID been in effect and successfully  
          implemented in the 1990's, Timothy McVeigh and many of the 9-11  
          hijackers would still have been able to lawfully obtain driver's  
          licenses under the federal Real ID Act's requirements.  

          Timing:  As mentioned above, California may be able to request a  
          20-month delay from the May 2008 federal Real ID Act  
          implementation deadline.  Not only would such a delay put off  
          the necessity of spending hundreds of millions of dollars and  
          inconveniencing millions of driver's license renewal applicants,  
          it would also allow additional time for Congress and the  
          President to consider modifying or eliminating some of the  
          federal Real ID Act's more onerous or less well-thought-out  
          provisions.  It would also give more time for momentum to build  
          for the incipient "rebellion" that seems to be forming among  
          various states that are refusing to cede their authority to  
          devise licensing systems that make sense to them, rather than to  
          the federal government.  

          Other states:  It is interesting to note that several states  
          have resolved, or are considering resolutions or other actions,  
          telling the federal government that they do not intend to  
          implement the federal Real ID Act.  According to a recent report  
          in the New York Times, "Maine legislators started off the  
          rebellion late last month by passing a nonbinding resolution  
          that rejected the law, called the federal Real ID Act, which  
          Congress passed in 2005.  They said that it would cost the state  
          $185 million to put into place and that instead of making  
          Maine's residents more secure, it would leave them more  
          vulnerable to identity theft.  Since then, legislatures in five  
          states, Georgia, Montana, New Mexico, Washington and Wyoming,  








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          have voted in committee or on the floor of one chamber to move  
          similar legislation ahead.  The bill adopted in a 99-to-1 vote  
          by the Montana House of Representatives would go furthest,  
          ordering state officials there to ignore the federal law."  

          Should this movement take hold, which it certainly could if a  
          bellwether state such as California were to follow suit, the  
          possibility of federal Real ID Act reform, if not repeal, would  
          loom large.  In that light, this bill could be considered to be  
          premature.  

          Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) recently signed  
          legislation that bans that state's Motor Vehicle Division from  
          enforcing the national rules, which set uniform security  
          features for driver's licenses and require states to verify the  
          identity of all drivers' license applicants.  

          Washington Governor Christine Gregoire (D) subsequently, signed  
          a bill barring that state from complying unless the federal  
          government comes up with an extra $250 million to cover the  
          state's expenses.  The law also gives Washington's attorney  
          general the right to challenge federal Real ID in court.  

          Montana's Schweitzer complained that the federal Real ID law is  
          another way for the federal government to stomp on residents'  
          personal privacy. "Montanans don't want the federal agents  
          listening to their phone conversations, rifling through their  
          papers, checking on what books they read and monitoring where  
          they go and when. We think they ought to mind their own  
          business," he said in a written statement.  

          Governor Gregoire in a statement said the federal Real ID Act  
          "Is another unfunded mandate from the federal government and,  
          even worse, it doesn't protect the privacy of the citizens of  
          Washington."  

          In all, 30 states have passed or are considering proposals  
          condemning the license standards. State lawmakers have railed  
          at the costs and deadlines imposed on states, at federal  
          intrusion into what had been a state responsibility and the  
          specter of a national ID card.  But the Montana and Washington  
          actions stand out as the first statutes to bar state agencies  
          from participating in federal Real ID, which passed Congress  
          without floor debate, attached to a 2005 bill funding the war  








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          in Iraq and international aid after the Asian tsunami.  

          Legislatures in Idaho and Maine have passed nonbinding measures  
          protesting the 2005 federal ID Act.  Arkansas lawmakers have  
          approved one resolution calling for Congress to repeal the act  
          and another that asks for civil-liberty protections and full  
          funding to meet the estimated $14 billion cost to states.  None  
          of those measures carries the weight of law or required a  
          governor's signature.  

          Related legislation:  AB 1433 (Huff) seeks to conform  
          California's licensing procedures to the federal Real ID Act but  
          makes no provision for issuing licenses to persons without  
          documentation of legal presence in the US.  In April 2007, AB  
          1433 failed passage in the Assembly Transportation Committee by  
          a vote of 5-9.  


           Analysis Prepared by  :   Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 


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