When Congress passed the REAL ID Act, it hadn’t held a hearing to examine the merits and demerits—or practicalities—of instituting a U.S. national ID. Unworkable, the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee called it. In the U.S. House, REAL ID was attached to a must-pass military spending bill after the House vote on that bill. REAL ID wasn’t a shining example of democratic deliberation.
But REAL ID requires state cooperation. States must convert their driver licensing bureaus into arms of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This means that states may deliberate openly about whether databases of information about their residents should be poured into a national ID system. (This is a clear requirement from the statute. States that commit to REAL ID compliance now eventually must “[p]rovide electronic access to all other States to information contained in the motor vehicle database of the State.”)
Minnesota is a state where Department of Homeland Security bureaucrats have recently pressured elected officials to fall in line. And in Minnesota today a “Legislative Working Group on Real ID Compliance” will meet to discuss “possible compliance measures.” The chair of the group is Rep. Peggy Scott (R) and the alternate chair is Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL).
Now, the Minnesota legislature is moving pretty fast. Their governor appears to have been successfully buffaloed by the Department of Homeland Security. But at least there is an open meeting that Minnesotans and interested advocates can attend to inform the legislature.
So now the question can be joined: Will Minnesota’s elected officials put the state’s residents into a national ID system?
The web page on which this meeting is listed appears as though it will change. Other members of Minnesota’s “Legislative Working Group on REAL ID Compliance”—folks who will have a big say on whether Minnesota becomes a national ID state—are listed below.
House Members
Rep. Peggy Scott (R)
Rep. Abigail Whelan (R)
Rep. Drew Christensen (R)
Rep. Dan Fabian (R)
Rep. Tim Miller (R)
Rep. Bob Vogel (R)
Rep. Dennis Smith (R)
Rep. Brian Daniels (R)
Rep. Brian Johnson (R)
Rep. Duane Quam (R)
Rep. John Petersburg (R)
Rep. Ron Kresha (R)
Rep. Tony Cornish (R)
Rep. Tim Kelly (R)
Rep. Cindy Pugh (R)
Rep. Carlos Mariani (DFL)
Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL)
Rep. Barb Yarusso (DFL)
Rep. Jason Isaacson (DFL)
Rep. Mike Freiberg (DFL)
Rep. Karen Clark (DFL)
Senate Members
Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL)
Sen. Jim Carlson (DFL)
Sen. Greg Clausen (DFL)
Sen. Melisa Franzen (DFL)
Sen. Foung Hawj (DFL)
Sen. Lyle Koenen (DFL)
Sen. Ron Latz (DFL)
Sen. Roger Reinert (DFL)
Sen. Tom Saxhaug (DFL)
Sen. Matt Schmit (DFL)
Sen. Warren Limmer (R)
Sen. David Osmek (R)
Sen. Carla Nelson (R)
Sen. David Senjem (R)
Sen. Julianne Ortman (R)
Sen. Dan Hall (R)
Sen. Karin Housley (R)
