ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 14, Number 39 April 13, 2005 In This Issue: OPPOSE THE "REAL ID ACT" IN THE EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS Please call your Senators and Representative and ask them to oppose the inclusion of the REAL ID Act (H.R. 418) in the Emergency Supplemental bill for U.S. soldiers and tsunami relief efforts. BACKGROUND: In March, the House passed the REAL ID Act (H.R. 418), which includes a provision (Title II) requiring states to, as Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) put it, "turn 190 million driver's licenses into national ID cards..." The House attached the ID card proposal to the supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 1268) that supports troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and tsunami relief efforts, and sent that bill over to the Senate. The House passed this measure without any hearings or debate. Like the House, the Senate has held no hearings on this measure. TALKING POINTS: A law requiring minimum national standards for driver's licenses was passed as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-458). The REAL ID Act of 2005 goes beyond the process set up through the Intelligence Reform act and makes proof of legal immigration status a requirement for obtaining a driver's license or state-issued ID. Driver's licenses are commonly used by the public as a means of identification for obtaining a library card and, in some states, public bodies have already been prohibited from accepting non-U.S. identification cards for receipt of public services, Those who are not "US persons" (citizens and resident aliens) could be precluded from access to public libraries. The REAL ID Act would require motor vehicle agencies to verify each piece of identification used to support an application for a drivers' license with the agency, domestic or foreign, that issued it. It may, thus, cause DMVs to erroneously deny drivers' licenses to U.S. citizens who do not possess the necessary documents to verify their citizenship status, potentially denying them access to publicly-supported libraries. The increased difficulties in obtaining drivers' licenses would also make voter registration under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the Motor Voter Act) less accessible for citizens, particularly racial and ethnic minorities. The Emergency Supplemental appropriations bill should be kept clean of extraneous provisions. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Carol Ashworth, Don Essex, Joshua Farrelman, Erin Haggerty, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.