Critics call Real ID a real nightmare

‘‘We’re going to try to keep the state from doing it and spending any more money on [Real ID] consultants until we see what’s going to happen with some of the other states,” said Sen. Jennie M. Forehand (D-Dist. 17) of Rockville, who is drafting a bill to introduce at the beginning of the session in January.

Critics have jumped the gun because Homeland Security has yet to publish the final rules on what states will have to do to comply with the federal law, said Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration Administrator John T. Kuo. Rules for the states have not been published yet and won’t be for another 60 to 80 days, he said.

‘‘We want to make sure there are no surprises in the final rules that we haven’t seen yet,” said Kuo, who estimated that implementing Real ID could cost Maryland $60 million.

Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005 as an effort to make states create fraud-proof identity cards. States would have to verify someone is a U.S. citizen or in the nation legally, and the information would be cross-checked through Social Security, immigration and other state and federal databases with the purpose of making it more difficult for a potential terrorist to board an airplane.

The federal identification also could be used to limit access to government services, such as Medicaid.

But critics say the security goal of Real ID does not match up with reality.

‘‘People say, ‘How can you oppose this? This will protect the country,’” Forehand said. ‘‘I ask if they’ve ever heard of ID theft. People who say things like that don’t know how things go on in the real world.”

But while Forehand is concerned about the privacy issues, she’s also concerned about the cost.

Some have estimated the cost for the states to implement Real ID nationally at more than $14 billion.

The MVA will review Real ID requirements and then meet with legislators, Kuo said.

In one scenario, the state could have a two-tier system where some residents would keep receiving driver’s licenses as they do now and others would seek Real ID cards, Kuo said.

The MVA should focus on doing its job without looking to take on the Real ID requirements, Sen. Delores G. Kelley said. A recent legislative audit criticized the agency for numerous failures, including issuing driver’s licenses to motorists who used the Social Security numbers of dead people.

‘‘I’m not sure they’re ready to take on something new,” said Kelley (D-Dist. 10) of Randallstown.

Homeland Security is even less experienced at developing identification cards and has had numerous problems in coming up with the rules for the states to follow, she said.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the legislators at a National Conference of State Legislatures meeting in November that the agency had fixed most of the problems.

‘‘But he was unable to tell us what he had done until the new rules are published,” Kelley said.

Based on the draft proposal, it appears as if too little thought went into securing the information to keep others from accessing it, said Cynthia M. Boersma, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland.

Everything from copies of birth certificates to Social Security numbers would be needed to obtain the Real ID cards, but the draft rules did not include any mandated encryption of the data.

‘‘This Real ID is the gold standard for identity, but it’s a lax standard for security protections,” Boersma said.