[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 20 (Friday, March 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1387-S1388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IDENTIFICATION BY DRIVER'S LICENSE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this afternoon many Members of Congress, 
many people across America will be headed to airports, and at the 
airport checkpoint they will be asked to show some form of a photo 
identification as well as a ticket. That is now the custom in America. 
It is something we have come to accept as part of our effort to make 
certain we have security on planes and in airports.
  The most common form of identification which will be presented by 
passengers across America to prove their identity is their driver's 
license. More than any other documentation, that is what people use 
when they travel.
  But, if we look to the question of the authenticity and integrity of 
a driver's license, I am afraid we find very troubling statistics and 
information. It seems that with very little effort and a minimum amount 
of money, virtually anyone in America can get a driver's license made 
with their picture on it. It may not be their real name. It may not 
have any accurate facts on it. But it will be a photo of some person 
with some name.
  A driver's license, as the primary source of identification in 
America, is your ticket to enter our society. Once you have that 
driver's license and present it, you are in the system. You are 
recognized as part of the system.
  You may want to get in the system for a variety of reasons. A person 
who is over 21 years old and wants to buy alcohol needs a driver's 
license to present so they can make that purchase. Someone who is in 
the business of stealing the identity of another person will want a 
driver's license with their photo on that other person's statistical 
information.
  Of course, if your goal is even more sinister, a driver's license 
becomes critical. Timothy McVeigh knew that. That is why he used a 
phony driver's license when he rented the truck which he drove into 
Oklahoma City, blew up, and killed so many innocent people. Several of 
the 19 terrorists involved in the September 11th attack also knew how 
important a phony driver's license was. They either obtained fake 
driver's licenses or licenses issued to them under false pretenses, 
which gave them access to a system, which started opening doors once 
the driver's license was in their name--or at least in some name with 
their photo.

  When we debate this, a lot of people in America get nervous. If we 
are talking about identification cards, are we talking about a national 
identification card system? I am not proposing that at all. Some 
Members of Congress have. I am not one of them. But I do think there 
are things we can do that can strengthen the process of issuing 
driver's licenses all across America, which can make them more uniform, 
more authentic, more credible.
  I am working on legislation, and I will be holding a hearing in the 
Governmental Affairs Committee in the coming weeks that will address 
this issue. I have worked with the administrators of State agencies 
across America. Every State agency with the responsibility of issuing 
driver's licenses is part of an association which has worked with me in 
an effort to come up with some standards across the States. When I walk 
into a DMV, whether it is in Illinois, New York, Georgia, or 
California, what do they ask to prove my identity? Is it a birth 
certificate? Is it a passport? What will really prove my identity?
  I think establishing minimum uniformity in the way driver's licenses 
are issued State to State makes sense. It is going to eliminate forum 
shopping by those who are looking for the easiest State to provide 
counterfeit and illegal documents in the process of obtaining a 
driver's license. That is why I worked with the association to come up 
with minimum uniform standards, so that State to State everybody knows 
that a person applying for a driver's license has established their 
identity through the most credible means. If somebody comes to Illinois 
to apply for a driver's license and they produce documentation that 
indicates they once lived in another State, I think the State of 
Illinois should have an opportunity to have access to that other State 
and find out if there is a chance that person either applied for a 
driver's license which was suspended or revoked or that State has some 
information that may be of value to Illinois before issuing the 
license. I think this is an excellent starting point.
  We are also working with States in terms of applying standardized 
verification requirements, such as validating source documents, for 
example. This includes authenticating the information provided, perhaps 
by cross-checking with other government agencies. So if somebody came 
and said, ``Here is my birth certificate as part of the proof of who I 
am,'' there would be a way to establish how you would cross-check that 
to make certain the document was valid.
  We are also working on ways to prevent tampering and counterfeiting 
of documents. This morning, on the CBS morning show, I was a guest of 
Bryant Gumbel. They featured a video segment where one of their 
reporters went to Los Angeles with $150 in hand and started walking the 
streets and saying, ``Where can I get a phony driver's license?'' It 
didn't take long to find one. Within a short period of time, that phony 
license was prepared with the reporter's photo for $150. Then he took 
that license and started buying airline tickets with that new name. He 
also got on several flights without anyone ever stopping him for using 
a phony document.
  That tells you how easy it can be even with enhanced aviation 
security today. But there are ways to make these driver's licenses more 
secure so they can't be counterfeited and easily manipulated. There are 
also ways to authenticate the validity of the driver's license using 
very inexpensive equipment. I think that ought to be part of our goal 
as well.

  We also need to establish tougher criminal penalties for those who 
would misuse driver's licenses, who would issue phonies, or those who, 
frankly, are part of a network that is trying to make a profit at the 
expense of identity. Senator Barbara Boxer of California and I 
discussed this issue this morning. She has legislation that addresses 
some of these aspects and we are going to work together with her on 
that.
  We also provide Federal whistleblower protection to those who uncover 
internal fraud or report suspicious activities involving State motor 
vehicle agencies. Why is this important? Look at what recently happened 
in Tennessee. There was a woman who--at least, it is alleged--was 
involved in an illegal scheme to sell driver's licenses, which is a 
very serious charge for somebody who had been a State employee in 
Tennessee. Then, under the most mysterious of circumstances, within a 
day of her expected court appearance, her car was set on fire, and she 
was killed. We have had instances in my State where people working at 
the driver's license stations have been bribed to issue commercial 
driver's licenses and other things. That does not give us confidence in 
the integrity of the system today.
  We need enhanced criminal penalties in place for anyone involved in 
any aspect of the fake driver's license trade, and also we need to 
establish whistleblower protections to get people to come forward with 
information.
  We should also require States to implement effective auditing 
programs in order to scrutinize every aspect of the issuing process for 
driver's licenses. One way to cut down on internal fraud and abuse is 
to protect the integrity of the agency's process. So a State should be 
able to find out for example, through routine audits, if some of their 
equipment used to manufacture driver's licenses are missing or 
inventory is

[[Page S1388]]

unusually low for the number of applications received.
  Frankly, these things would move us toward a system which would give 
more credence to the current process of presenting identification. I 
don't mind standing in line at airports. Last week, I was at Chicago 
Midway, and I twice stood in lines for a half hour each to present my 
identification and plane ticket. That is part of the cost of making 
certain that when I got on that airplane, it was safe. I think people 
all across America understand that. It is sad, and I wish it weren't 
the case, but it would be sadder still if the wrong person using fake 
documents got on the plane and ended up endangering many innocent 
lives. But if this process is worth anything, and if it is going to 
work, the identification presented has to be valid and validated. That 
is why this effort is so important.
  I have discussed this in terms of terrorism and security, but two 
other aspects should be mentioned. All across America now, we have 
problems with drunk driving. Fortunately, the percentage of drunk 
drivers has gone down dramatically in this country, and I give credit 
to effective law enforcement, as well as to organizations such as 
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Students Against Drunk Driving 
(SADD). They have changed the climate and environment, advocating 
designated drivers and a more responsible use of alcohol. Even some of 
the beer and alcoholic beverage companies have gone that extra step to 
try to advertise the dangers of drinking and driving, and the need to 
be suspicious of those who do.
  The biggest problem we face here is the number of young people under 
21 who are easily able to obtain phony driver's licenses and 
identifications who can then purchase alcohol. Once they purchase and 
consume it and end up in an intoxicated state, they endanger their 
lives and others. If we toughen the standards by which States issue 
these driver's licenses, and if we go after the manufacturers and 
marketers of fake documents with heavy penalties, and if we make the 
cards more resistant to counterfeiting, then I believe we can diminish 
the likelihood that a young person will end up with a phony license or 
identification, buy alcohol, and cause a death in the process.

  The next area I will mention is one that I know personally--identity 
theft. You may not be aware of the fact that this is the largest 
growing consumer fraud complaint in America. Last year, at the Federal 
Trade Commission, 204,000 complaints were filed for a variety of 
deceptive practices, and 42 percent of them related to identity theft. 
This means that in just one year, close to 100,000 Americans were 
victimized when somebody took their name and their information and did 
something with it without their approval. It has happened to me as a 
Member of the Senate. I got a call a couple of years ago at home, and 
they said:

       We finally caught up with you, Richard Durbin. Did you 
     think you were going to avoid this bill you incurred in 
     Denver, Colorado?

  I said:

       I haven't incurred any bills in Denver, Colorado.''

  They said:

       Yes, you did. You applied for a credit card, and here is 
     your Social Security number. You made several thousand 
     dollars in purchases and you never paid for it.

  I said:

       It never happened. I never went to that store. I haven't 
     been in Denver, Colorado, for that purpose.

  Someone had stolen my identity, and they applied for a local credit 
card, and they ran up several thousand dollars in purchases. Of course, 
they didn't make any payments. Eventually, I straightened it out. There 
are ways to do that although it could take a long time. I give credit 
to the credit agencies that accepted the truthful information and 
cleared my credit record.
  Identity theft is growing, and part of the scam is to come up with 
phony documentation. One of the key elements in documentation is your 
driver's license which is the most widely used form of identification. 
Once you have that license, doors start to open. You use that phony 
license to match the name on a stolen credit card, and you are off to 
the races. It is pretty easy. Sadly, we have to acknowledge that it is 
a growing problem in America.
  So coming up with minimum uniform standards on driver's licenses, 
making sure that when they are issued, they are truly issued to the 
person who is applying for them, providing ways to make certain that 
other States haven't revoked a driver's license when a new State is 
being asked to issue one, making certain that States improve their 
internal processes to prevent fraud and abuse, putting in tougher 
penalties for those who would abuse them, incorporating security 
features on driver's licenses so they can't be counterfeited--all of 
these things move us forward to improve our nation's security.
  And all of these common sense solutions add up to a process that is 
far from anything remotely resembling any national identification card. 
There would not be any new nationally issued cards or databases or 
tracking systems or collection of sensitive information. There would 
not be intrusion on privacy--if the FBI needed information about a 
potential criminal's information contained in his DMV record, they 
would go through the same process they do today--by going to each State 
and following the established process to obtain that information.
  What I propose is a system where the States would have an incentive 
to move forward--a better system, more accurate, with more integrity, 
with ability to work more effectively with other States. I think this 
is a step in the right direction. I commend my colleagues who have 
expressed an interest in this issue. In the next several weeks, we will 
have a hearing in the Governmental Affairs Committee, where we will 
bring in people from across the spectrum--law enforcement, State 
leaders and representatives, those who have been deceived, and those 
who have had their identity stolen from them.
  I will ask them to come together to help us with legislation that 
will take this commonsense step forward, to make sure that the most 
commonly used photo identification presented at an airport or a train 
station or at the bank is really is an indication of true identity of 
the cardholder.
  I yield back my time, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Reed). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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