Before posting I actually took the time to read through this act, let me tell you, reading through a Bill is a total mess. You have to have several different laws open so that you can see what they are refering to in each section.

So I finally make it down to page 42 of 60, where the bill actually begins to talk about licenses and id cards.

The act requires that the state issued card have the following:

Full legal name, date of birth, gender, license number, primary residence physical address, digital photograph, person's signature, physical method to prevent forgeries, and a machine readable technology with minimum data elements.

The act also requires that states only issue cards to US Citizens, and immigrants who have Visas, asylums, or requests for Visas and asylum. This means that the states must use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlemenst, an automated system that shows the validity of the status of immigrants in the country.

Further the bill requires the state to issue only temporary cards to aliens with expiration dates that match their Visas of pending claim dates. THe bill also requires states to link databases with the minimum date elements that include what is on the card itself along with a persons driving record to include tickets, points and suspension.

Now I am not one for a national ID card, however, I do believe that changes have been needed to make states more responsible in issuing of ID cards. This bill would make it against the law for states to issue IDs and driver licenses to illegal immigrants. It would also make states tie expiration dates on cards to the expiration dates on Visas, all of the hijackers on September 11 had valid IDs issued through states even though their Visas had expired.

I have yet to see anything leading to a national ID card. The linking of databases is not new. States already have access to other states driver license databases.

dmk