Douglas Alexander: “after 9/11, the 9/11 Commission recommended that in light of the terrorism our country faces, we begin to study how we…”

“after 9/11, the 9/11 Commission recommended that in light of the terrorism our country faces, we begin to study how we can have more secure identification cards. A number of the terrorists had stolen cards or had fraudulent cards or had ID cards that were not real. As a result of that, the Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act at the end of 2004 which established a process by which we could look at the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. It established a negotiated rule-making process. Because most of the ideas about ID cards involved State and local governments, all of them involved issues of privacy, all of them involved the possibility of great inconvenience to most Americans, this negotiated rule-making process would basically create a seat at the table for representatives of all the affected groups and try to work out the most sensible thing to do. I have historically been opposed to the idea of an ID card. When I was Governor of Tennessee, I twice vetoed the photo driver's license bill because I thought it was an infringement on liberty. But the legislature overrode me, I accepted it, and today, after 9/11, I agree it would be wise for our country, with a combination of terrorism and the difficulties within immigration, to have more secure identification cards. The question is, which one?”