Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Thanks to a rational decision by the federal Department of Homeland Security, South Carolinians, at least in the near term, will not be required to present a passport or face added scrutiny when they travel by air after May 11.
In an announcement last week, DHS said it was granting South Carolina an extension on meeting the requirements of the Real ID Act, even though Gov. Mark Sanford held his ground and refused to seek the extension. The decision by Homeland Security gives lawmakers a chance to work out the details of this potentially onerous unfunded federal mandate. DHS said it granted the extension because South Carolina already substantially complies with the requirements of Real ID. The most important result of that extension is that South Carolinians won't face added inconveniences in the near term as they travel by air or visit some federal buildings.
In a five-page letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in which he said South Carolina will not comply with Real ID, Sanford pointed out that this state already meets "90 percent of Real ID's requirements." The state notably falls short on aspects of the act that require electronic retention of identification documents and sharing of personal information in a national database -- two of the more expensive requirements.
In his letter, Sanford estimates the total cost to this state to implement Real ID at $116 million. Sanford aptly points out that's a significant burden to place on a small state. All told, the states would pay $11 billion to meet the act's requirements. While Real ID is a sound idea in many ways, there's no excuse for the federal government to place that sort of unfunded burden on the states.
On those grounds, Sanford is right to resist compliance with Real ID, and state lawmakers were justified last year when they passed a law saying South Carolina would not comply.
Sanford further decries the impact on South Carolinians' wait times at DMV offices. While the state should be lauded for reducing average wait times at the DMV to about 15 minutes, there are two things that should be noted: While it's not implausible, there's no guarantee adhering to Real ID would create a one- to two-hour wait, as Sanford suggests. But if it does, certainly a longer wait to obtain a driver's license once every eight years is a fair price to pay for enhancing national security.
As the United States continues to struggle with illegal immigration, a nationally uniform identification would make it easier to verify who is here legally. It also could streamline the job of law enforcement by requiring officers to deal with one ID card rather than 50 different ones. And it could make it more challenging for terrorists to blend into society by making it more difficult for them to obtain a state ID.
That said, these driver's license standards should be implemented only if the federal government is willing to pick up the tab. Now that South Carolina has received an unrequested extension to the Real ID requirements, our congressional delegation and legislators from the other 49 states need to work to ensure this unfunded mandate isn't forced upon us when that extension expires.