Ready or Not, Real ID just blew your budget.

Governors' $1B Real ID request may be just the start By William Welsh The nation’s governors asked the House Budget Committee this week to provide a minimum of $1 billion in fiscal 2008 to cover initial state implementation of the controversial Real ID Act. (GCN)

And so it begins. Make no mistake, the RealID program is going to be a costly and difficult program for the States to administer, just because the Federal government cannot get a National ID plan through the Congress. As I have argued ever since this plan was first introduced, the United States already has a national ID. It is called a passport. Every nation has one and the requirements for getting one are fairly strict.

What the RealID act is supposed to resolve is the verification process behind a driver's license. The problem is that a driver's license is nothing more than a permit issued to an individual that entitles them to the privilege of driving a car. Like the Social Security number, it was not intended for any other purpose. It was not designed to identify someone, be used to verify their age, address or immigration status. For each of these purposes, there are documents, some good and some not so good that will accomplish the same thing. The goal of the RealID is little more than an end-run to establish a national ID. If this is what the Congress wants, then the Congress needs to procure the funds, set up the system interconnects and manage the project like it should be managed.

A billion dollars is not even going to scratch the surface for one state, let alone a national system. And when there are so many other things that really could use the money, I have to ask if this is even close to being the best use of funds.