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 AFI Energy and Transportation Committee

May 31, 2002

The Honorable Jeff Flake
House Committee on the Judiciary
512 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative Flake:

I write on behalf of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to urge you to oppose H.R. 4043. The legislation represents an unfounded federal mandate on states, would essentially force states to adopt a burdensome and ineffective law and would penalize lawful citizens of states that fail to adopt such legislation. More specifically, NCSL opposes H.R. 4043 for the following reasons.

H.R. 4043 Fails to Address a Concern with a Small Population and would Penalize all State Citizens NCSL supports efforts to increase national security at the federal, state and local levels. However, it contends that H.R. 4043 would fail in this effort, while penalizing the vast majority of lawful U.S. citizens living in states that fail to adopt a law linking drivers' license expiration dates to visa expiration dates. This bill would render the licenses of all citizens hailing from states without such laws null and void as far as the federal government is concerned. This effort constitutes coercion by the federal government to force states to adopt legislation favored at the federal level or else harm their innocent state citizens.

Nonimmigrant Verification is a Potentially Major Unfunded Mandate on State Governments
Although H.R.4043 indicates grants will be made to states to assist them in issuing drivers' licenses and other comparable identification documents, NCSL contends that this provision which lacks any specific authorization language or dollar figure is far too general. Given the unfavorable economic conditions at both the state and federal levels, NCSL is concerned that without assurance of sufficient funds, which is also an amount that would be subject to much debate, state legislatures would be not only forced to adopt an undesirable and unnecessary law, but also appropriate the necessary state funds to implement those changes at the state level from an already overburdened budget.

States cannot and should not be penalized by the federal government for providing visas to individuals who have remained in the U.S. beyond the expiration date of their visas. Currently, states do not have access to information about individuals' visas from the INS on a real-time basis. Therefore, unless state DMVs are able to connect to the INS information system, states cannot be expected to withhold drivers licenses from those citizens who have expired visas. In addition, many legal visas given to nonimmigrant aliens have no expiration dates, therefore, states would not be able to grant or deny a drivers' license based on visa expirations for those individuals.

NCSL looks forward to working with the members of the House Committee on the Judiciary on this issue. Should you or your staff have questions about our concerns or require additional information, please contact our staff Eileen Doherty at (202) 624-8687 or Susan Parnas Frederick at (202) 624- 3566.

Sincerely,

Senator Lori S. Daniels
Arizona State Senate
Chair, NCSL Energy and Transportation Committee