A federal law - the REAL ID Act of 2005 - creates a de facto national identification card and threatens the personal information of every driver and state identification card holder in Illinois! Contact your state representative today to support House Joint Resolution 27, a measure calling on Congress to repeal the REAL ID Act. You can send a free fax to your state representative by going to https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=589&page=UserAction.

With almost no discussion and no real debate, Congress adopted the REAL ID Act of 2005 as part of a "must pass" appropriations bill to fund the Iraq war and Tsunami relief. READ ID mandates that Illinois turn its driver’s license into a national ID card that will be part of a shared database encompassing information from all 50 states and the territories.

State Representative Karen Yarbrough has introduced House Joint Resolution 27, calling on Congress to repeal REAL ID.

There are several problems with REAL ID, beginning with the fact that the proposal is an unfunded mandate. Estimates are that REAL ID will cost $11 billion to implement initially, with the full cost over five years at $23 billion. Congress has appropriated less than $40 million, and the President’s recent budget called for no funding for REAL ID implementation. The cost of REAL ID, then, will be passed along to the people of Illinois – everyone seeking a driver’s license or a state identification card. Help stop the Real ID nightmare by sending a free fax at https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=589&page=UserAction.

Most disturbingly, REAL ID creates "one-stop-shopping" for identity thieves. Since all the state agencies' databases will be interlinked, it takes only one hacker in another location or a rogue, corrupt DMV official to put all of our data at risk. Secretary of State Jesse White recently testified that there were more than 58,000 unauthorized attempts to access Illinois' database during the month of February. One can imagine what happens when there are 50-plus new backdoors to our personal data.

In short, House Joint Resolution 27 sends a strong message to Illinois' congressional delegation to reverse this decision and work more diligently at protecting our personal privacy.

Help protect our private information! Visit https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=589&page=UserAction to send a free fax.