Letter Opposing National Drivers License

This letter was sent by the National Drivers License Coalition to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Senator Spencer Abraham, Senator Richard Shelby, Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert, the House Appropriations Committee, and the House Judiciary Committee.

May 25, 1999

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert
Speaker of the House
U.S. House of Representatives
H-232 Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Speaker Hastert:

We represent a broad-based coalition of state legislators, county officials, public policy groups, civil libertarians, privacy experts, and consumer groups from across the political spectrum. We urge the Congress to repeal Section 656 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibilities Act of 1996 that requires states to collect, verify and display social security numbers on state-issued driver's licenses and conform with federally-mandated uniform features for driver's license. The law preempts state authority over the issuance of state driver's licenses, violates the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1994 (UMRA) and poses a threat to the privacy of citizens. Opposition to the law and the preliminary regulation issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been overwhelmingly evidenced by the more than 2,000 comments submitted by individuals, groups, state legislators, and state agencies to NHTSA.

The Law is Counter-Devolutionary, Preemptive and Violates the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act

The law and the proposed regulation run counter to devolution. The law preempts the traditional state function of issuing driver's licenses and places it in the hands of officials at NHTSA while imposing tremendous costs on the states that have been vastly underestimated in the Preliminary Regulatory Evaluation. The actual cost of compliance with the law and the regulation far exceeds the $100 million threshold established by UMRA. In addition, the law and proposed regulation require states to conform their drivers' licenses and other identity documents to a detailed federal standard. Proposals for a national ID have been consistently rejected in the United States as an infringement of personal liberty.

The Law Raises Serious Privacy and Civil Rights Concerns

The law raises a number of privacy and civil rights concerns relating to the expanded use and dissemination of the Social Security Number (SSN), the creation of a national ID card, the potential discriminatory use of such a card, and the violation of federal rules on privacy. The law and proposed rule require that each license contain either in visual or electronic form the individual's SSN unless the state goes through burdensome and invasive procedures to check each individual's identity with the Social Security Administration. This will greatly expand the dissemination and misuse of the SSN at a time that Congress, the states, and the public are actively working to limit its dissemination over concerns of fraud and privacy. Many states are taking measures to reduce the use of SSNs as the driver's identity number. Only a few states currently require the SSN to be used as an identifier on their driver's licenses.

While the impact of Section 656 may not have been fully comprehended in 1996, we urge the Congress now to act swiftly to repeal this provision of law that has been challenged by many diverse groups. If you or your staff have any further questions, please contact Dawn Levy of the National Conference of State Legislatures at (202) 624-8687.

National Drivers License Coalition Members: National Conference of State Legislatures, National Association of Counties, American Civil Liberties Union, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Concerned Women for America, Eagle Forum, Electronic Frontier Foundation, National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, National Council of La Raza, National Immigration Law Center, and the U.S. Catholic Conference.

NCSL Staff Contacts: Dawn Levy (202) 624-8687, Jennifer Horne (202) 624-8675

Energy and Transportation Committee

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