Officials fend off Real ID proposal

OLYMPIA – Washington lawmakers want specific guidelines to be met before the state starts implementing the federal Real ID Act, a 2005 law signed by President Bush requiring strict national standards for state-issued driver’s licenses.

The state Senate passed a measure Monday that directs the state not to spend money to implement the act unless privacy and security protections have been met, the implementation doesn’t place unreasonable costs or record-keeping burdens on citizens, and the state has received federal money to put the act’s requirements into effect.

The measure passed 41-4, with one senator absent and three excused.

Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, said the law could impose “quite onerous” consequences on Washington state drivers.

“We certainly don’t want to be at the head of the pact complying with this law,” Swecker said on the Senate floor. “We should sit back and allow the discussion to proceed.”

Last week the Bush administration agreed to grant states an extra year and a half to comply with the law. The original law set a May 11, 2008, implementation deadline, but the Department of Homeland Security has yet to issue final requirements for the information that must be on driver’s licenses or identification cards.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was among several federal and state lawmakers who lobbied for the extension. She said the department was giving states too little time to comply in a cost-effective way.

The new deadline is Dec. 31, 2009.

The state Department of Licensing had estimated it would cost $96.7 million over the next two years and $93.4 million in 2009-11 to implement the act. No federal aid has been provided yet.

“We have huge concerns about the price tag,” said state Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle. “This bill addresses that.”

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said last week that states would be allowed to use as much as 20 percent of their Homeland Security grants to comply with the new standards.

On Monday, the Senate also passed, 48-0, a bill to create the Children in Families Administration inside the Department of Social and Health Services. The administration would be able to hire additional staff when social workers’ caseloads become too much.