Atlanta, GA -- “’September 11’ has become the catch-all excuse for virtually every proposed expansion of government power,” notes Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee for president.  “One example is a national identification card and data base, long desired by some in government, and which was mandated by legislation passed by the Congress in 2005 with the support of both Senators McCain and Obama.  Although I was no longer in the Congress when this bad legislation was passed,  I had vigorously opposed it in the years since it became law, just as I led the successful effort to rescind a previous mandate for a national ID card.”

Unfortunately, he explains, “the Real ID Act establishes a new and privacy-invasive national ID card program.  By forcing states to standardize their driver’s licenses and creating a vast national data base of private information on the citizenry, the law establishes through the back door something Americans would never have accepted directly—a National Identification Card.”  In fact, “there was no open and honest vote on Real ID.  The mandate was slipped into a supplemental appropriations bill, discouraging any real debate over the issue.”

“Creating anything close to a national ID card threatens Americans’ basic civil liberties and privacy while doing little or nothing to make us more secure,” warns Barr.  The legislation also “means higher fees, longer lines, and greater inconvenience for Americans getting a driver’s license.  The burden on states, which have to redesign and remake state licenses and include all manner of information on citizens applying for new driver’s licenses, would be extremely high and immensely costly, since they would have to restructure computer databases, security systems, verification measures, and more.”

“Technically no one has to have a federally approved license,” admits Barr.  “That is, unless you want to get on an airplane or visit a U.S. courthouse, a veterans affairs hospital, a Social Security office or any other federal building.  Americans once could live their lives with minimal contact with the federal government; but that is impossible today.”

Several states have passed legislation resisting or denouncing Real ID, while similar bills have been introduced in many others.  “But the onus for dealing with Real ID falls on Congress,” says Barr.  “As president, I would submit legislation to repeal the law.  I also would use my authority as president to limit the law’s impact to the extent allowed by law—establishing privacy safeguards, extending compliance deadlines, and relaxing license requirements.  Protecting the people’s liberties and privacy is central to government’s role, not an afterthought – factors obviously not important to my opponents in both the Republican and Democratic Parties who supported the Real ID Act.”

Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and also served as an official with the CIA.
 
Since leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and has teamed up with groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to actively advocate every American citizen’s right to privacy and other civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Along with this, Bob is committed to helping elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant individual freedom.