The NJ Star Ledger's editorial board in the Sunday March 4th edition recommends that the Real ID Act of 2005 be reversed. The paper uses wrong "facts" to come to a wrong conclusion.

First, the paper needs to remember that it has long advocated the Bush administration and Congress implement all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Report. The paper has backed up that opinion by continuously recommending to Jersyans that they vote for Democratic candidates for various offices that also believe the 9/11 Commission suggestions should become law. Indeed it was part of the Democrat Party's "First 100 Hours" guarantee made when Pelosi, et al. took over.
Now that is exactly what the Congress and President Bush did when they passed legislation and signed it into law in 2005. Improving document security was a central recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. Its co-chairman, former New Jersey governor Tom Kean, has said that the REAL ID Act is "vital for the protection of the country.?The Star Ledger states "Many of the 9/11 ijackers had genuine driver's licenses."
But what the paper fails to mention is that, according to a new paper from 9/11 Commission counsel Janice Kephart,the hijackers obtained a total of 17 driver’s licenses and 13 non-driver IDs, seven of them by fraudulent means. At l east six of the hijackers used these IDs to board their planes. An ommission of fact that is inexcusable for such an important discussion.

Secondly, the Star Ledger erroneiously says "The Real ID Act's inflexible requirements will force states to spend more than $14 billion over the next few years, with no new federal aid to offset the expense". This is simply incorrect.
Actually, according to the Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National National Governors Association,(http://www.aamva.org/About/PressRoom/PressReleases/RealIDCostStates11Billion.htm) the Real ID cost is a one-time expense "of $1 billion and ongoing costs of more than $10.1 billion for the first five-year enrollment period." No where do the above experts on the cost of the Real ID act mention the Star Leger's "$14 billion" figure.

As a matter of fact, the Bush administration just last week announced that states would also be permitted to use up to 20% of their homeland-security funds on this task. In fact, now that the DHS funding will be subsidizing and the time-frame will be spread-out over a longer period of time, the cost of the Real-ID Act are certianly manageable.

We should not be confused with erroneous analysis. The Real-ID Act is needed and needed now.