Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today joined with 43 diverse organizations to launch a national campaign to solicit public comments to stop the nation's first national ID system: REAL ID.

“REAL ID raises the specter of George Orwell’s 1984 – the government controlling a central database of personal information, which could be used to monitor the comings and going of American citizens,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.

Passed quietly in May 2005, the REAL ID Act established strict and costly federal minimum standards for state-issued drivers’ licenses, even though most states had already improved their methods of verifying and securing IDs.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates the total cost of implementing the proposed regulations will be $23 billion over 10 years.  On January 25, Maine became the first state in the nation to demand repeal of the law and four others have followed since. 

In March, CAGW declared a victory for taxpayers and drivers after DHS released proposed regulations for personal identification that do not mandate the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology.  CAGW has released two reports, Real ID: Big Brother Could Cost Big Money and Border Security: PASS Card Fails on Cost, Privacy, criticizing RFID-based identification. 

“The rejection of an RFID chip was a positive development, but REAL ID still threatens privacy and is a costly, unfunded mandate on the states.  Citizens must take the time to let DHS know they don’t want Big Brother watching,” Schatz concluded.   

The draft regulations to implement the REAL ID Act are open for comment until 5 p.m. EST on May 8, 2007.  To take action and submit comments against the fundamentally flawed national identification scheme, search http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main, under Docket No. DHS-2006-0030-0001. 

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