Maine Legislature to Vote on Real ID Resolution Thursday
January 24, 2007
Press conference scheduled for Noon
AUGUSTA—Senate Majority Leader Libby Mitchell, D-Kennebec County, today said that the Maine Senate and House are expected to vote on a Joint Resolution Thursday, which would reject a mandate by Congress requiring Maine to comply with the Real ID Act of 2005. The Act requires states to turn their driver’s licenses into national ID cards that will be part of a 50-state shared database.
Real ID could cost Maine taxpayers approximately $185 million to implement.
The resolution, sponsored by Senator Mitchell and co-sponsored by Representative Scott Lansley, R-Sabattus, has bi-partisan support and urges Congress and the President to repeal the Real ID Act.
A copy of the resolution is online at www.mainesenate.org/mitchell
Real ID has gained the ire of privacy advocates, who say linking driver’s licenses and state ID cards to a national database will create a goldmine of accessible information for identity thieves. The Real ID Act requires the cards to include a computer-readable zone, which privacy advocates say will allow anyone with a reader to collect the personal identifying information of anyone with a card.
A press conference on the impact of Real ID is planned for Thursday in the State House Welcome Center at Noon. Details are below:
Who: Senate Majority Leader Libby Mitchell, House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D- North Haven, Representative Scott Lansley, and Maine Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Shenna Bellows
What: Members of the press are invited to hear the results of a vote on a resolution to keep Real ID out of Maine, and what legislators think the decision will mean for the people of Maine.
Where: Welcome Center, State House, Augusta, Maine
When: Thursday, January 25, 2007, 12:00 p.m.
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