Published: February 27, 2008 10:18 pm         

Senate passes an anti-Real ID bill

CHARLESTON — West Virginia nearly blew a golden opportunity in Sen. Clark Barnes’ opinion to make war with Washington over the controversial Real ID and make good its “Mountaineers Are Always Free” slogan.

But as things often happen in the Legislature, the game changes by the hour.

For six weeks this session, the senator wanted enough lawmakers to join him in a revolt against the disputed federal identification card, just as 17 other states have done.

But the Senate Rules Committee pulled his bill just before a floor session, meaning it was sent to the chamber’s graveyard for this session with no chance for resurrection. Three hours later, it was alive again, courtesy of the same panel.

On the floor, only Sen. Frank Deem, R-Wood, questioned the measure, saying Barnes’ opposition “just doesn’t make sense to me.” Deem was joined by Sens. Karen Facemyer, R-Jackson, and Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, in voting against it.

Barnes found strong support in his bill aimed at blocking West Virginia’s participation in Real ID from the American Civil Liberties Union.

While some might see a conflict in two forces at the opposite end of the political spectrum, the ACLU’s state director, Seth DiStefano, said there is common ground between liberals and conservatives on this issue.

“A lot of people, liberal or conservative, don’t like the idea of a federal database for your personal information,” he said.

Before the first rules action, Barnes was prepared to deliver some oratory on his bill, attacking “coercive federalism” that he feels flies in the face of what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

“Threats of withheld funding or other practical concerns effectively rewrite the Constitution in favor of greater federal power,” he was prepared to tell the Senate.

Barnes had warned that if Real ID becomes in use nationally, a non-conforming card can’t be used to secure a passport, collect Social Security payments or even board an airplane.

“The Real ID is a tremendous threat to the personal information of all Americans,” DiStefano said.

“The big threat to security is the mandatory integration of all 56 licensing districts into sharing information back and forth. Essentially, if one person at a Division of Motor Vehicles office within the 56 licensing districts screws up, you could theoretically have a security breach of every American’s personal information.”

Barnes accused the Rules Committee of caving into Gov. Joe Manchin’s desire to have the bill killed.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com