No backdoor ID policy

Americans deserve a thoughtful debate over whether national identification cards are a good idea, not Congress making the decision through the back door by taking over the states' driver licensing.

Last week, House Republicans approved a provision -- attached to a supplemental spending bill for Iraq -- that would put unreasonable requirements on how states issue licenses. The legislation, which the Senate will consider this week, requires each state to verify applicants' citizenship or immigration status. Also, states would have to make copies of immigration documents submitted and retain a digital photo of each applicant. Supporters, led by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., say their so-called Real ID provision will protect the country against terrorists and strike a blow against illegal immigration. In fact, the rules would threaten Americans' privacy and place a needless burden the states.

Standardized driver licenses held in a central database would amount to national ID cards. Rep. Sensenbrenner and his backers haven't disclosed how they would secure this database or manage access. With identity theft cases growing, it's hardly time to collect and store in one place so much vital information. Until now, the federal government has had the good sense to leave driver licenses to the states, which has worked well for nearly a century.

In effect, the proposed requirements would federalize state workers and cast them into roles for which they have no training. What does a motor vehicle office employee know about immigration law? How are state employees supposed to verify information that even federal employees would find hard to check? The consequence for the states would be finding a way to pay for all the new responsibility Congress intends to inflict on them. As usual, there's no plan to send federal money.

Rep. Sensenbrenner taps 9/11 fear to make his case, saying that driver licenses helped the terrorists carry out the attacks. In truth, while nine of the 19 hijackers had licenses, the real problem was fraudulent passports and visas the hijackers used to get into the country. Those are federal responsibilities. The federal government should fix itself and leave the states alone.