[addicted2freedom]

Keep up the pressure!

Good day, Volunteers,

Yesterday, while at the Capitol, Mike and I were made aware of an Intergovernmental Affairs Committee memo from Representative Thomas, the chairman, to all House Members.

In the memo he states:

"In the near future, I will be introducing legislation which mandates that the Commonwealth will not obtain nor seek to obtain certification under the Real ID Act of 2005 and provides for specific authority of the Governor and/or Attorney General to file legal challenges against the Act."

"If you are interested in co-sponsoring this legislation, please contact … "

His legislation then guts HB 1351. He removed all of the biometrics information and then replaced "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…" with "The Commonwealth shall not seek or otherwise apply for state certification under the Real ID Act of 2005.

Biometrics is the major issue of Real ID and PennDOT is already converting (for new drivers) and has already converted (for the rest of us) our digital pictures into biometric images.

He then included the wording from HB 1351 which states:

"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 is a cop out to protect PennDOT. It allows PennDOT to continue what they are doing and there is absolutely nothing that the Attorney General could file in court challenging the Real ID Act, since PennDOT would be implementing it at their will. Representative Thomas's wording, "The Commonwealth shall not seek or otherwise apply for state certification" means nothing. It has no teeth and amounts to mire fluffy words.

Let's call, email, or visit our Representatives in their home offices week and educate them on this ploy Representative Thomas is attempting to pull over the eyes of our elected officials. We want nothing to do with biometrics in Pennsylvania. Encourage them not to support Representative Thomas's new legislation, but to support HB 1351.

Representatives will not be in session until June, so it's an excellent opportunity to schedule a visit with them at their home office.

Yours in Liberty,

Jim

PS For those of you who are able to make it to Erie tomorrow, hammer this hard at the hearing. We don't want Real ID in Pennsylvania nor any part of it, which includes biometrics. Nor do we want our government sharing our personal information including Social Security Numbers with anyone, from any state, or country.