Montana Leads Resistance to Real ID

Monday, February 18, 2008

By JBS Staff
John Birch Society

On January 18, Democrat Montana governor Brian Schweitzer sent a letter to the governors of Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington, asking them to join him “in resisting the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] coercion to comply with the provisions of REAL ID.”

“Secretary Chertoff has stated that every state must file an extension within 60 days of the final rule publication or he will, beginning on May 11 this year, direct the Transportation Security Agency and other federal offices to subject citizens of non-compliant states to secondary screening every time they wish to board a commercial aircraft or enter a federal office building,” continued the governor. “I would like us to speak with one, unified voice and demand that Congress step in and fix this mess.”

Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner was adamant that DHS will not back down, however. “That will mean real consequences for their citizens starting in May if their leadership chooses not to comply,” said Keehner. “That includes getting on an airplane or entering a federal building, so they will need to get passports.”

The new federal requirements would ban boarding commercial flights and entry to federal facilities entirely, starting in 2014, for anyone born after December 1, 1964 for those not having a Real ID. States will have until 2017 to bring those born before December 1, 1964 under the new regulations.

Last April, Governor Schweitzer signed legislation refusing state implementation of the federal Real ID Act. The legislation, sponsored by Montana state Rep. Brady Wiseman, unanimously passed both the Montana House and the Montana Senate. The legislation was praised by Montana’s U.S. Senator Jon Tester, who is a cosponsor of the Identification Security Enhancement Act (S. 717), a bipartisan bill that repeals the Real ID Act and gives states more flexibility in fighting terrorism. The House equivalent of the legislation is H.R. 1117.

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