Very Dangerous "Real ID Act of 2005"
Danger in New Law Titled "Real ID Act of 2005" Victims' of Domestic Violence & Shelters Addresses May Wind Up in a Federal Database.. Your congressman and State Senator's are in the process of negotiating the differences between the House and Senate Violence Against Women Act bills. One section in the Senate version of the bill provides address confidentiality provisions for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. This provision provides that victims who are currently enrolled in state address confidentiality programs or whose addresses are legally suppressed, would be exempt from the regulations of the REAL ID Act of 2005. BACKGROUND The REAL ID Act of 2005 mandates states to force driver's licenses or state ID card holders to provide documentation of their actual physical address. This information would then be put in a Federal database. IDs from states who fail to implement this system will not be considered "Federally recognized IDs". Therefore citizens in those states will not be able to fly, get a checking account, rent post office boxes or even enter government buildings. I imagine that over time they will also lose Federal transportation funding as well. States have 3 years to implement this system (however they receive no Federal funding to do so). THE DANGER As you can see this poses an EXTREME danger to the privacy of victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. Additionally, victims who live in a state that may choose not to implement the new regulations may have a hard time rebuilding their lives, traveling or relocating. Hence why we The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence has written an exemption to this law in Violence Against Women Act.(V.A.W.A.) HERE'S THE CATCH Because the House version of VAWA does not contain this exemption we have to convince the House judiciary to include the Senate language in the conference bill. This will not be an easy task since the Chairman of the House Judiciary is Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, the author of the REAL ID Act of 2005! HELP US HELP VICITMS If you have any stories of victims, friends, relatives or even you, that have been stalked or otherwise located because of their Department of Motor Vehicle information, public utility, or other records providing their address, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I assure you that I will not release the name of you or the organization that provided assistance to you. (maybe just your city and state). We need to PROVE to the Congressional staff that this is a HUGE danger to victims! The best way to do that is to provide anecdotal information! It scares the living daylights out of womens organizations and myself, to hear that they may be (unintentionally) putting lives at risk and in their OWN STATE! Each of us live in states that have state address confidentiality programs such as Battered Womens Shelters this will cause real danger if this Act goes through without special provisions. Please email me with any stories, do not include your name, just the story of how you or someone you knew re-built their lives because their personal information remained confidental, the city and the state. Please email me at Kindlivinginc@aol.com Susan Murphy-Milano
