New licenses get green light amid passport snarl

The Homeland Security Department is showing increasing flexibility by allowing states to use tamper-proof driver's licenses to meet new border security requirements, and House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., is pushing for her state to help lead the way.

Slaughter, whose New York district borders Canada, has been a leading critic in Congress of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which will require all travelers -- including U.S. citizens -- to have a passport or other accepted document in order to enter the United States when traveling to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. The Homeland Security Department intends to implement the requirement next year for land and sea travelers.

Slaughter brought Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to upstate New York Monday to view border operations and discuss the impact of the new requirement on commerce and tourism in her state.

After the meeting, Chertoff agreed to have his department meet with New York officials within a month to discuss developing a program under which New York residents would be able to use enhanced driver's licenses as an alternative to passports. New York would become the second state, next to Washington, to pursue enhanced drivers licenses as an alternative.

"I was pleased to announce that Secretary Chertoff has agreed to have DHS representatives meet with New York State officials within the month to discuss replicating Washington's pilot program in New York," Slaughter said Tuesday. She added that Washington's program "should be allowed to run its course before any new passport requirements are put into effect."

The Homeland Security Department is responsible for defining the technology and standards for Washington state's enhanced driver's licenses, according to a memorandum of agreement signed in March by Chertoff and Washington Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire. But the agreement does not obligate Homeland Security to provide the state with federal funds for the effort.

Many lawmakers and state officials are worried major problems will occur if U.S. citizens have to get new passports. The federal government is already experiencing a massive backlog of passport applications because the law went into effect for air travelers in January.

Chertoff said during a news conference last week that more than two dozen states could move to develop their own enhanced licenses. That would increase the number of documents that border inspectors will accept, but the total would still be far fewer than about 8,000 documents that are now accepted. And Chertoff sees commonality when it comes to technology and procedures for the licenses.

"Once you have the architecture, you have the card, the card stock, the chip and the business process -- every state can use the same process," Chertoff said. "Obviously it will have different words printed on the card, but it's the same basic mechanism ... I'd be happy to have 20 or 25 [states] because it's going to be the same basic document just with a different covering on the top of it."

Chertoff added that letting states use licenses could also reduce the workload the State Department will face in issuing new passports.