Washington, D.C. – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today pointed to anti-REAL ID legislation in New Hampshire as further reason to reject embedded computer chips for drivers’ licenses.  On March 8, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 217-84 to pass House Bill 1582, sponsored by Rep. Neal Kurk (R-Weare), which rejects a $3 million federal grant to test the REAL ID program.  The REAL ID Act sets up a national identification database and requires uniform standards for state-issued IDs by 2008. 

“The Department of Homeland Security should interpret this as another sign to not issue burdensome and intrusive REAL ID regulations,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon decide on regulations to implement REAL ID.  DHS has two options for licenses:  magnetic or two-dimensional bar codes; or contactless circuits such as radio frequency identification (RFID) chips.  In October 2005, CAGW released REAL ID:  Big Brother Could Cost Big Money, which criticized RFID as the more costly and less secure of the two technologies.  The total cost of issuing new RFID licenses could reach $17.4 billion and the average cost of a license would shoot from between $10 to $20 to more than $93.  No state currently uses RFID chips in drivers’ licenses. 

Buried in an $82 billion military spending bill and passed without any congressional debate in May 2005, the REAL ID Act was touted as an anti-terrorist and immigration reform bill.  However, most states were already making secure cards at a reasonable cost and improving application procedures.  With the capacity to store vast amounts of personal information, RFID chips can be remotely accessed by unauthorized persons and are susceptible to viruses.

“The expense of implementing an RFID mandate would dwarf $3 million in federal grant money,” Schatz continued.  “DHS should keep cost and technology difficulties to a minimum by choosing cost-effective and proven technologies that are being used in most states today.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.