I am disappointed that the Walker Administration has given in to the misinformation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the TSA by putting forth legislation to make Alaska implement the Federal REAL ID Act. It is my duty to make sure people have the facts they need to defend their rights.
The Department of Administration has been reporting that if we do not comply with REAL ID we will not be allowed to use our state IDs to get through TSA checkpoints. In reality there is no existing or proposed federal law requiring ID to travel at all. A recent reply to a four-year-old Freedom of Information Act request to the DHS has shown that 77,000 people per year fly without ID, and only 2 percent who try are turned away.
The REAL ID Act was never debated by Congress, but rather was hidden in a 2005 emergency appropriations bill. It is barely six pages long, but it opens the door for the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA, and outside private organizations to control the identification cards we need to exercise our inalienable rights of work, travel, and privacy.
Alaskans are being told that under the Governor’s bill, they will be allowed to choose between a REAL ID and a regular ID, but this is inherently false. Under the REAL ID Act, noncompliant IDs must be marked “NOT FOR OFFICIAL PURPOSES.” The old ID will be gone forever, and if you can’t come up with the required paperwork to get a REAL ID, you will be stuck with a bogus ID.
Regardless of which ID you get, your personal data will be entered into a private nationwide database where you will no longer be able to obtain any information about it or have any control over it.
The REAL ID Act requires each state to “provide electronic access to all other States to information contained in the motor vehicle database of the State.” For years it was impossible for states to comply with this requirement until a private organization, the American Association of Automobile Administrators (AAMVA) and a private company in Midlothian, VA named Clerus Solutions created a private national database called SPEXS to satisfy this mandate. Since then DHS has left it to AAMVA to set the standards for the national database.
Surprise, surprise. Clerus Solutions is made up of former AAMVA executives. The Founder and Chairman of the Board of Clerus Solutions actually helped Congress write the REAL ID Act. He and the President and CEO, the Senior Vice President, and the Senior Business Analyst all were top executives at AAMVA before forming Clerus Solutions and the SPEXS database.
In January of 2017, without permission from the Legislature, the Department of Administration uploaded almost every Alaskan’s personal ID data including much of our Social Security information to the SPEXS Database. The Social Security Administration expressly warns against using Social Security information in this manner, and the REAL ID Act does not specifically require that such information be shared, but the Administration has defended the practice because it is an AAMVA requirement.
AAMVA and its subcontractors are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act or any other state or federal public information laws. There is no way to correct mistakes or obtain information about the data they have compiled on you.
Neither DHS nor the TSA will appear before any of our committees or truthfully answer any of our questions about the REAL ID Act.
Rest assured, I would not be standing up to DHS and the TSA like this if we did not have a much better alternative available to us. For $55 anyone who can get a REAL ID can get a passport card. Sixty-five percent of Alaskans already have a passport or passport card. A passport card is actually better than a REAL ID because it will get you access to everywhere a REAL ID will and more. A passport card can be obtained through a post office and only requires two pieces of documentation, whereas a REAL ID requires four pieces of documentation and a personal visit to a DMV, which many communities don’t even have.
Please join me in calling upon Governor Walker to withdraw his legislation and instead sue the federal government to defend our state and federal constitutional rights to travel freely, to have privacy, and to manage our own affairs.
Rep. Chris Tuck is the Majority Leader of the Alaska State House.
