Kill Real ID in Harrisburg

The PA Senate will be in session for ten days from Tuesday, September 16 through Thursday Sept 25. We are organizing carpools to Harrisburg so that we can have a presence in the Capitol during this period and pressure PA's Senators to finally KILL REAL ID once and for all.

This effort will be spearheaded by Jim Compton of the NVCCA. Jim has graciously offered his home to volunteers, so there is no need to worry about paying for a hotel. Jim's home was designed to be a bed and breakfast so there are multiple guest rooms. If we have more volunteers than there are guest rooms others can sleep on his couches or on the floor in sleeping bags.

Please try to set aside a day or two or three during this ten day period to take a stand in Harrisburg. Call off work if you can. If you can't, try to go over the weekend. Whatever it takes, please try to make this trip.

Please contact me (Adam) ASAP and let me know which days you are available. I am working with Don R. (who has volunteered his van) and others to keep the cost of transportation low through carpooling.

How to get in touch with me:
1) Use my personal e-mail address if you have it
2) Send me a private message through meetup.com
3) Send an e-mail to [masked]

What is the status of Real ID in PA?

In 2007, HB 1351 was introduced in the PA House by Sam Rohrer. HB 1351 is a bill to opt PA out of the Real ID program and to forbid PennDOT from building a database of PA drivers' biometric faceprints. PennDOT has been doing this since 2006 as part of a $45.5 million contract with Viisage Technologies, a subsidiary of L-1 Identity Solutions. This has been going on without the informed consent of most PA drivers and without the legislatures approval. Due to pressure from individuals and organizations from all over the political spectrum (including members of PAFA), HB 1351 had over 90 co-sponsors and growing by May of 2008. However, the bill was referred to the IGA Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Thomas, refused to bring the bill to a vote. Instead, he introduced HB 2537, a gutted version of 1351 which would NOT stop biometric faceprints. When that bill came to the floor for a vote, Rep. Rohrer introduced an amendment to re-insert the language pertaining to biometrics. That amendment lost by a narrow margin (108-92).

Now the battle is in the Senate. We need our Senators to amend HB 2537 so that it stops PennDOT from using biometric software and implementing other facets of Real ID. We need the database of faceprints destroyed. We have ten days to make this happen. It is up to us to stop Real ID or we will all be carrying our papers in PA very soon.

For more information on Real ID's status in PA, see this video:
http://video.google.c...

Please feel free to spread this message to other groups who oppose Real ID.