9/11 Commission Recommendations Are Tough Sells 

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Reported by Stew Magnuson 

The implementation of two of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations on strengthening the verification of individuals’ identities are getting pushed back.

Slipped in among the massive omnibus spending bill Congress passed at the end of 2007 was an amendment delaying the controversial Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative rule that requires passports or other identification for those traveling between Canada and Mexico.

Previously, those traveling to those nations were going to be required to show a passport, or some other officially recognized identification, proving citizenship beginning Jan. 31. That has now been pushed back to June 1, 2008.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, was among the lawmakers who pushed for the delay.

“It is important that we strike a balance between the security of our nation’s borders and the free flow of commerce and travel to and from the United States,” she said in a statement.

The controversial requirement caused consternation, especially on the northern border, where citizens were accustomed to giving a verbal declaration of citizenship. The policy created a backlog of passport applications at the State Department. The initiative earlier implemented rules requiring passports for those arriving by air.

But land crossings are different, Collins pointed out. “For many Maine residents, quick and easy border crossing is critical in order to access essential services, to travel to their jobs, to attend church, and to visit family and friends.”

She wants the Department of Homeland Security to come up with “alternative, less expensive” forms of identification that take into account the needs of frequent border crossers before the new deadline.

Among the possibilities are enhanced driver’s licenses that are currently being developed by several border states. Such licenses will have machine-readable chips or bar codes that contain biometric and other data that can be quickly read by Customs and Border Protection agents. Arizona, California, Michigan, Texas, Vermont and Washington are among the states to produce such cards, a DHS statement said.

REAL-ID, an even more controversial law that requires states to provide driver’s licenses that can be machine readable across all 50 states, will be delayed five more years. The law, passed in 2005, initially required compliance by May this year. That proved not only to be a technical challenge, but faced widespread opposition from civil libertarians — on the right and left — and more importantly, state governments, which called it an expensive, unfunded mandate.

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, citing the concerns of states, pushed compliance back to 2013.