Montana governor Brian Schweitzer declared victory Friday after the Department of Homeland Security sent his state an extension to the Real ID act, despite his insistence Montana will never comply with a mandate he describes as a "boondoggle."
Photo: Montana Governor's Office
"If I were writing the headline, it would be 'DHS Blinks," Schweitzer, a Democrat, told THREAT LEVEL by phone late Friday.
Montana's attorney general sent DHS chief Michael Chertoff a letter (.pdf) Friday outlining the security features in Montana's current driver's licenses, which DHS threatened to reject as valid I.D. for boarding airplanes or entering federal buildings come May 11 unless the state promised to comply with Real ID.
DHS responded by interpreting that letter as a request for an extension (.pdf) of the Real ID deadlines until 2010, reversing its previous position that Montana ID cards would be rejected by federal agents.
"I sent them a horse and if they want to call it a zebra, that's up to them," Schweitzer said. "They can call it whatever they want, and it wasn't a love letter."
Schweitzer emphasized that his state's licenses already contain holograms, secure digital photographs and a magnetic stripe on the back. But says he has no intention of sharing his state's residents' data with the federal government, as required by Real ID.
The information the government wants the states to keep and share in Real ID is ripe for abuse, despite the government's privacy and security promises, he said.
"They tell us our data is safe," Schweitzer said. "You tell that to the passport people," he said, referring to news that State Department employees snooped in all three major presidential candidates' passport files.
"Do you want your government to have the ability to track where you went, how you got there and when you got home?" Schweitzer asked. "It would be naïve for someone to think this information will not be abused in the future. Virtually every decade these kinds of files have been used to violate people's privacy."
"We already have an ID system they are hoping to get to in seven years," Schweitzer said.
Adding more scorn to the heap, the outspoken governor called Real ID an empty notion and said that DHS isn't even likely to be around in seven years when the final phase of Real ID is scheduled to go into effect.
Schweitzer said he sent the letter to Chertoff "just to keep the guy happy. He seems so grumpy all the time. It doesn't mean anything."
The governor said he and Chertoff spoke on the phone a few weeks ago, and Schweitzer outlined a scenario where he and the secretary are on the CBS news program 60 Minutes, days after DHS starts patting down Montana driver's license holders trying to get on planes.
"I said, 'Montana already has the most secure licenses in America, and the Real ID will not exist for seven years, so they are going to single Montana out. They admit we have one of the most secure ID systems and they singled us out because I wouldn't sign on to a concept.'"
"'Now ... your turn', I said. And then Chertoff said, 'I see the problem. We need to get this fixed.'"
And that, according to Schweitzer, is how a state that is determined never to comply with Real ID got a Real ID extension.
See Also:
- Feds Avoid Showdown by Giving Montana Real ID Waiver It Didn't Ask For
- Montana Governor Foments Real ID Rebellion
- New Real ID Rules To Shut Down Nation's Airports in May?
- DHS Suggests a REAL ID Could be Necessary for Medicine
- DMV Gets Educated on Real ID by Homeland Security Industrial Complex
- California Backs Off Real ID - Update