The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators received a no-bid contract worth millions of dollars to implement a “verification hub” connecting state and federal databases under the REAL ID program.
AAMVA, which already maintains a database of commercial drivers in every state, was believed to be the company that would get the contract for the verification hub which, when completed, will allow states to electronically verify documents such as birth certificates and Social Security cards with other states and with the federal government.
The database begins with a $17 million REAL ID Demonstration Grant awarded to the state of Missouri, which will then pass on that cash to AAMVA to do the actual work of developing the system. Four other states, Florida, Indiana, Nevada, and Wisconsin, received $1.2 million grants to be the first states to connect to the new database.
The grants were a portion of nearly $80 million in grants awarded to 48 states and territories to implement various parts of REAL ID in those states. Every state and territory which applied for funding received at least $300,000, according to DHS. Only Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington state did not apply for funding. Many of those states are not participating in REAL ID.
That $80 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated $11 billion price tag for REAL ID. It’s like getting two cents when you need $30.
AAMVA calculates the final costs of building out the database would reach as high as $130 million. AAMVA maintains its driver’s license database through a contract with EDS Corp. of Plano, Texas.
Meanwhile, EDS currently charges AMMVA a maintenance fee for maintaining its commercial driver records. That charge, according to sources, is $0.08334 per month for each record. Under REAL ID, then, EDS could become responsible for maintaining up to 240 million driver records across the United States, potentially netting EDS as much as $240 million per year merely for maintaining commercial driver records. — Homeland Security Today
Homeland Stupidity was the first to note that AAMVA would likely get the contract for the central database which linked the states together under REAL ID.
DHS has said the central verification hub will not diminish privacy or put people at risk. And I have a million bushels of Iowa corn to sell you.
“Personally identifiable information, beyond the minimum information necessary to appropriately route verification queries, will not be stored,” reads a statement on the DHS web site regarding the verification hub. Sounds good, right? Take a second look. It’s a carefully worded statement. That “minimum information necessary” just happens to include, well, all your most important identity information: your name, birthdate, Social Security number, driver license number, address, and perhaps a few other things I can’t think of offhand. That’s more than enough to keep a corrupt employee or a hacker in stolen identities forever.
“Americans overwhelmingly want secure identification, and this funding will help those states working to provide it,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “We’ve made it more affordable for states to implement REAL ID by dramatically cutting costs and providing various and considerable funding options, and we’re requesting additional funding next year.”
If Americans overwhelmingly wanted REAL ID, why didn’t Congress just bring it up for a vote on its own merits, instead of sneaking it in the back door attached to an Iraq war funding bill?
It seems to me that Americans overwhelmingly want to be safe. But what threats do Americans really face? Terrorism doesn’t even belong on the radar; it’s too rare an occurrence. Accidents and crime certainly do belong on the radar. But the biggest threat to any given American’s security is his own government. These are the people who can harm or kill you and get away with it.
When you consider privacy (and by the way, privacy is a form of security; by giving it up you make yourself more vulnerable) you must consider that the government, the only institution which can get away with unjustly hurting or killing you — and which routinely does so — has all your information, and they can change the “rules” at any time.
This is just one more way in which the government is putting you in danger.
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Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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Bob
Jun 22, 2008
“This is just one more way in which the government is putting you in danger.”
I just had a thought, Michael. Maybe we like it. Maybe we get off on the thrill of the government messing with us.
We drink.
We smoke.
We take drugs.
We drive fast.
We drink, drive fast, take drugs and smoke all at the same time, and sometimes we don’t even wear our seatbelts when we’re doing it! Jesus!
We bungee jump.
We climb rocks and go white water rafting.
We sky-dive.
We fight and play hard.
We eat too much and all of the wrong things. It makes us fat.
We play with guns.
We ride motorcycles without helmets.
We go unprotected when we fornicate.
We expose ourselves to all of these “dangerous things” because they give us a thrill.
Maybe we like bad, intrusive government for the same reason. Maybe that’s why we tolerate it.
Just a thought.
Bob
Jun 22, 2008
What is that thrill?
It’s temporarily surrendering control of your life to someone or something else just to relieve the boredom and see what happens. We can’t think of something satisfying to do on our own so we let someone or something else take control.
It’s like shaking a cup full of Yahtzee dice. It’s better than sitting there looking at the same dice for the whole game or turning them over by hand one at a time, even if you do roll a scratch.
We are very complicated creatures.
Ray
Jun 22, 2008
Want to bet this as a kick back for their support of this disaster.
Michael Hampton
Jun 22, 2008
AAMVA has been working on getting this contract for years. Of course, how they did it is to hire the correct politically connected people.
Kevin Fields
Jun 23, 2008
My God, we’re turning into a real-life version of Demolition Man. I’m waiting for the day when the government sends me off to a cryoprison for rehabilitation.
Red Herring
Jun 23, 2008
Listen close ‘cuz I’m only going to say this once: Privacy is dead. You can find out anything about any one for $50 and five minutes on the Internet. The credit bureaus, the IRS and Social Security all have far more information about you than any DMV ever will. But, Oh My God, it’s all in one database! So what? If your information is one database or ten, it doesn’t matter. If ‘the feds’ or anyone else wants a file on you, they’ve already got it. The Real ID Act makes no difference either way.
What is scary about Real ID, and what you should be upset about, is what you will need a Real ID for. Right now, it’ll only be required for boarding planes and entering federal buildings. The first attempt at requiring a Real ID to for I-9 employment verification failed, but they will try again. You will probably need a Real ID to get a job at some point in the future, even if it’s decades from now. How about requiring a Real ID to open a bank account? The possibilities are limitless and of course it’s all in the name of security.
Privacy, schmivacy. The real problem is what they will use it for.
Michael Hampton
Jun 23, 2008
I suppose, Red Herring, that you’re in a position to know.
All of these things about REAL ID are true, though they would apply just as much even in the absence of the REAL ID Act. Over the past few decades government has expanded dramatically and of course it wants you to be identified to it. A side effect of this has been that more and more private entities are asking for government ID when they have little or no reason to do so. Part of this is government mandate, for instance, carding people for alcohol and tobacco.
But the Rubicon was crossed when government made the driver license a form of identification. It originally was not; decades passed before any state made a driver license a form of identification. And since in the modern world virtually everyone must drive, or at least travel, virtually everyone gets a driver license, which also happens to be a form of identification.
Thus it is considered unusual to bordering on suspicious if someone does not have one, and someone not carrying identification these days should expect to be harassed at some point by the so-called “authorities.”
This of course gets worse with REAL ID, with the feds butting their nose in and telling the states what to do, and then deciding what states’ IDs they will accept — and then require — for any aspect of your life. But we were headed this way anyway; if it wasn’t REAL ID, it would have been something else.
Bob
Jun 24, 2008
Do I detect a note of resignation and acceptance, Michael? Possibly even defeat? Give yourself a slap! Things are just starting to get “interesting”. Nobody can tell you what to do. They just force you to make choices sometimes.
Jun 24, 2008
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