04/18/2008
enlarge
Staff photo by Jim Evansfrom the Kennebec Journal
Rep. Pingree hears varied proposals for health-care solutions
HALLOWELL Fire that cut communications labeled arson
MONMOUTH Police defended after slim budget rejection
State's schools chief to parley
Wasser will lead newsrooms at KJ, Sentinel and in Portland
BRIEFS
Hockey still in picture for Harrington
Portland boxer to face legend's son
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
$1.3 MILLION FOR HEALTHREACH
Families Matter grows to meet special needs
Chellie Pingree listens to ideas on health care reform
FARMINGTON Rain alters plans for 4th of July
District regroups after budget failure
Vote on county budget hits snag
Burnham driver wins checkered flag at 2 tracks on same day
Maine boxer gets unique opportunity
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Gov. John Baldacci sought the changes to avert a showdown with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which contended that Maine's lax practices encouraged fraud. The bill, which Baldacci is expected to sign, orders the state to take several steps to make Maine licenses more secure.
They include verifying that applicants are in this country legally before issuing licenses to them. Maine is one of six states that do not currently have a "legal presence" requirement for immigrants seeking licenses.
The federal government is demanding that the state make that change and others by Dec. 15, in exchange for giving the state more time to comply with other provisions of the federal Real ID Act.
The federal law is supposed to make all of the states' driver's licenses more uniform and secure, but Maine is one of several states that have passed laws refusing to comply.
Homeland Security had threatened to stop accepting Maine driver's licenses as a valid form of identification to board commercial flights and to enter federal buildings unless the state made some licensing changes this year.
The House of Representatives backed the reforms on a preliminary vote of 79-58 Thursday afternoon and then gave the bill final approval without another roll-call vote. That set the stage for final passage in the Senate on a 19-15 vote. Thursday's votes capped two days of debate in the Legislature, as lawmakers raced to complete what was being billed as the final or near-final day of the 2008 legislative session, which began in January.
Legislative leaders had hoped to wrap things up Wednesday night, but the session stretched into Thursday because several issues remained unresolved. They included the licensing bill and a bill designed to fix deficiencies in the 2007 state law requiring small school districts to merge.
The legislative debates on license changes underscored sharp differences of opinion on the merits of the bill, as well as some resentment of the federal government's demands.
Backers of the changes argued that requiring applicants to prove they are in this country legally before giving them a license or an ID card is a prudent safeguard that the state should be willing to embrace.
"If we don't pass this legislation, come Dec. 15, people in Maine, 1.3 million people, will not be able to use their driver's license to get on a commercial airplane," Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, told the Senate Thursday.
By making a few licensing changes now, Diamond said, the state can buy time to try to get Congress to repeal or modify the Real ID Act, without inconveniencing Mainers in the meantime.
Opponents argued that the federal government is trying to coerce Maine into implementing an unfunded federal mandate that threatens to undermine civil liberties and privacy rights without making the country any more secure.
"Make no mistake -- our freedoms are under attack," Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, said on Thursday. "Members of the Senate, it is our right -- but more than that, it is our duty -- to protect our liberty" by opposing this bill.
Instead of caving in to the federal government's threats, Damon said, "perhaps we ought to challenge that edict."
The bill orders the secretary of state to specify what types of documents people seeking a driver's license or a state ID card will need to prove that they are in this country legally. Those rules become effective on Nov. 15.
The bill says the state will start using a federal document-verification program by Dec. 1, 2009, to verify the legitimacy of documents provided by immigrants seeking a driver's license. Any license issued to a non-citizen who is in this country legally would expire no later than the license holder's legal status in the United States.
Additionally, the secretary of state must determine the best way of photographing all applicants for licenses and ID cards at the start of the application process, instead of waiting until they have qualified for a license or an ID card.
The secretary of state also must report back to the governor and the Legislature's Transportation Committee by Oct. 1, 2009, on how to ensure that the state does not issue more than one license or ID card per applicant.
The secretary of state is expected to cover part of the cost of the changes using available funds. The Legislature is supposed to provide additional funding in the future. The bill orders the secretary of state to file legislation repealing all of the changes if Congress repeals the Real ID Act at some point in the future.
The dispute between the state and federal governments came to a head after Baldacci sent a letter to Secretary Michael Chertoff, who runs Homeland Security, on March 25 asking that agency to continue accepting Maine licenses as a form of ID.
One of Chertoff's aides wrote back on March 31 that the state would first have to agree to make its licenses and identification cards more secure.
Baldacci replied on April 2, promising to ask the Legislature to make the changes demanded by Homeland Security.
That satisfied the federal agency, which announced that day that the reforms backed by Baldacci went far enough to warrant an extension for complying with other provisions of the Real ID Act.
A related bill that was filed in the Legislature before the face-off with Homeland Security won final approval in the Legislature Thursday.
It will require that applicants for a driver's license live in Maine to qualify for a license.
Reader comments
Click here to view or add reader comments