Assessing the Options: REAL ID, PASS ID, or No National ID at All
Featuring Christopher Calabrese, Counsel, Technology & Liberty Program, American Civil Liberties Union; David E. Williams, Vice President, Policy, Citizens Against Government Waste; and Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies, Cato Institute.
The introduction of a bill called the PASS ID Act in the Senate has renewed the debate about whether the United States should have a national ID. PASS ID purports to improve on the moribund REAL ID Act, but the central question is whether there should be a national ID at all. A national ID would cost billions of dollars, place sensitive identity documents into insecure databases, and give the federal government more control over Americans' private lives. Join us for a discussion of the weaknesses that PASS ID and REAL ID share with any national ID system, and why diverse, competitive identity and credentialing systems are superior.
