FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You

By Declan McCullagh

What's all the fuss with the Real ID Act about? President Bush is expected to sign an $82 billion military spending bill soon that will, in part, create electronically readable, federally approved ID cards for Americans. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the package -- which includes the Real ID Act -- on Thursday.

What does that mean for me?

Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the United States, you'll need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service. Practically speaking, your driver's license likely will have to be reissued to meet federal standards.

The Real ID Act hands the Department of Homeland Security the power to set these standards and determine whether state drivers' licenses and other ID cards pass muster. Only ID cards approved by Homeland Security can be accepted "for any official purpose" by the feds.

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[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Times are getting tough all over in this country; all I can say is I am _so glad_ that over the next ten to fifteen years, as the United States sinks deeper and deeper into trouble and strays further and further away from the type of life I remember here, I will probably be dead and not have to deal with it. Do not misunderstand; I do not intend to off myself, I'll just let nature takes its normal course, but I am very fearful about how 'things will be' for the younger guys forty or fifty years from now, assuming the United States is still around, with about half the population in prison and the other half employed to guard them, etc.

The laws will be _so restrictive_; social security will be a thing of the past, etc. I guess you saw in the papers or on the computer yesterday that the FBI arrested _three dozen_ individuals, mostly American soldiers (National Guardsmen mostly) _and several border patrol agents _and_ several law enforcement officers in a 'drug sting on the Nexican/US border. Things are getting so depressing everywhere one goes in this country these days. I agree with the words of Johann Sebastian Bach in his work "Come Sweet Death, Come Blest Repose". Some days it couldn't be soon enough for me. PAT]