Friday, January 04, 2008

Reach out to squash the REAL ID in PA -- please

PA Senate bill 1220 (SB 1220, P.N. 1673), opposing the REAL ID, was referred to the Communications and Technology Committee on December 27, 2007 and is now posted on the PA's legislative bill site. It is a much stronger rejection of the federal REAL ID than its counterpart, HB 1351, in the PA House.

Your action is needed to encourage support of this bill!

The full text of the bill can be found here:

Name: The "REAL ID and Biometric and Economic Privacy Act"

Web Link

The bill is thankfully short and shows no tolerance for the 2005 federal Real ID Act. It rejects the Real ID and even rejects other laws and regulations that would put compromise economic privacy. Here is its operative wording for Sections 3, 4 and 5 respectively:

** "Neither the Governor nor the Department of Transportation or any other Commonwealth agency shall participate in the compliance of any provision of the REAL
ID Act of 2005."

** "Neither the Governor nor the Department of Transportation or any other Commonwealth agency shall participate in the compliance with any Federal law, regulation or policy that would compromise the economic privacy or biometric data of any resident of this Commonwealth."

** "Either the Governor or the Attorney General may file an action in a court of competent jurisdiction to challenge the constitutionality or legality of the REAL ID Act of 2005."

This bill needs additional sponsors and support to ensure it is adopted without amendment. Please contact your state senators, particularly if they are committee members, and encourage their support of this bill. Thank them if they are already a sponsor.

Current sponsors of the bill are:

FOLMER, KITCHEN, ROBBINS, REGOLA, FUMO, MELLOW,

ERICKSON, C. WILLIAMS, FERLO, WASHINGTON,

ORIE, BOSCOLA,LAVALLE, HUGHES AND EARLL.

Five of these sponsors are Committee members:

Constance Williams, D-17, Minority Chair; Edwin Erickson, R-26; Bob Regola, R-39; Vincent Fumo, D-1; and Leanna Washington, D-17

Remaining Committee members are:

Robert Wonderling, Chairman, R-24; John Gordner, Vice-Chair, R-27; Lisa Baker, R-20; John Eichelberger, R-30; John Wozniak D-35; and Joseph Scarnati, President Pro Tempore & ex-officio member of all committees, R-25.

You can find your legislator by zip code or county by using the "Find Members By" box in the upper right of the page at this link:

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/index.cfm


The PA Senate will be back in session on January 14, 2008, so let them know what you think.

Additional information on the REAL ID Act of 2005 can be found in Sen. Folmer's press release on the topic:

http://www.senatorfolmer.com/press-2007/1107/111407.htm


Letting your federal representatives know what you think of the REAL ID would also be a good idea.

Thank you for taking the time to help limit government expansion and protect the rights of the citizens!

In Liberty, Michael J. "Mik" Robertson, Chair, Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Two Supreme Court cases challenging the validity of an Indiana voter ID law could make a big impact on 2008 elections; Dennis Kucinich files lawsuit to get on the ballot in Texas; outrage over election in Kenya continues with violence; experts say biodiversity loss is a major negative of biofuels; sustainable fashion dominates catwalks and gives farmers a new market for their crops; GM aims to limit landfill-bound waste; job growth shrinks significantly in December; National Labor Relations Board rewrites doctrine, undermining one of labor's more successful organizing tactics; Judith Warner comments on the outsourcing of surrogate mothers; women tell their stories of bearing the brunt of climate change at UN conference in Bali; and more ... Browse our continually updating front page at http://www.truthout.org

t r u t h o u t | 01.04

Go directly to our issues page: http://www.truthout.org/issues.shtml

Voter ID Challenges Could Have Big 2008 Impact
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010408R.shtml
Keith Perine for The Congressional Quarterly reports, "A pair of closely watched voting rights cases headed to the Supreme Court next week could have a greater effect on the 2008 elections than anything happening in Iowa or New Hampshire."

Kucinich Files Lawsuit After Party Denies Him Place on Ballot
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010408S.shtml
The Associated Press: "Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, along with supporter Willie Nelson, [...] filed a lawsuit to get Kucinich on the ballot in Texas after they say the Texas Democratic Party rejected his application."

In Kenya, a Spiral of Killings
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010408T.shtml
Robyn Dixon, The Los Angeles Times: "There always has been an undercurrent of tribal tension in Kenya, but the East African country has avoided the kind of wholesale violence that has plagued nearby countries such as Rwanda. The dispute over the election, however, has left about 300 dead from Kisumu in the west to Mombasa on the Indian Ocean."

Burning Biofuels May Be Worse Than Coal and Oil
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010408EA.shtml
Alok Jha, The Guardian UK: "Using biofuels made from corn, sugar cane and soy could have a greater environmental impact than burning fossil fuels, according to experts. Although the fuels themselves emit fewer greenhouse gases, they all have higher costs in terms of biodiversity loss and destruction of farmland."

Ecofashion Wins on Runway, Helps Farms
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010408EB.shtml
The Associated Press: "Designers of so-called sustainable fashion are not only dominating New York catwalks and urban boutique racks this winter, many also are providing farmers with new markets for their crops."

General Motors in Hot Pursuit of "Landfill-Free" Facilities
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010408EC.shtml
Tom A. Peter, The Christian Science Monitor: "The American auto giant aims to convert half of its 181 facilities worldwide into "zero waste" operations by 2010. That means not a scrap of metal from those GM sites, or even a juice box from a worker's lunch pail, would end up in a landfill."

Job Growth Numbers Send Stocks Lower
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010408LA.shtml
Michael M. Grynbaum, The New York Times: "Job growth shrank significantly in December, the government reported on Friday, raising concerns that the economy has already entered a serious slowdown and all but assuring that interest rates will be lowered this month. Stock markets fell sharply on the news."

Kim Moody | "Card Check" Takes a Hit
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010408LB.shtml
Kim Moody for Labor Notes writes, "The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rewrote in September a 40-year-old doctrine that will undermine one of labor's more successful organizing tactics - card-check recognition. Card check allows workers to gain union recognition by a simple majority show of authorization cards."

Judith Warner | Outsourced Wombs
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010408WA.shtml
Judith Warner for The New York Times writes about the complex moral questions that arise when Indian women are being paid to be surrogate mothers for American women.

Women's Stories From the UN Conference in Bali
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010408WB.shtml
Imelda V. Abano for The Women's International Perspective reports, "At the December UN conference in Bali, Indonesia, experts and concerned people alike discussed how poor women in developing countries bear the brunt of climate change in a wide range of ways."

VIDEO | Barack Obama: Our Time for Change Has Come
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010408A.shtml
Barack Obama tells supporters in Iowa, "Years from now, you'll look back and you'll say that this was the moment, this was the place where America remembered what it means to hope."

Go directly to our issues page: http://www.truthout.org/issues.shtml