January 24, 2008

DHS's National ID Scheme Faces Opposition from Congress

A US government scheme to introduce a federal ID card for US citizens, dubbed Real ID, has run into problems in Congress. The Department of Homeland Security scheme plans to use states' driver's licence databases as the foundation of the federal identity scheme. Department of Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff published a Final Rule on 11 January that set out how the scheme will work and set dates for compliance. Commenting on the Final Rule, Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House of Representatives committee on homeland security, said in a letter to Chertoff, that it showed the Bush administration had failed to consider adequately the nation's security priorities.

US national ID card scheme runs into trouble, ComputerWeekly, January 23, 2008.