I really believe that if our original 9/11 Commission legislation had been left intact... we would have millions more secure IDs.

I would particularly like to thank Senators Akaka and Voinovich for their leadership on PASS ID and moving this forward.

This is a classic example in this post-September 11, 2001, world of our responsibility to weigh those privacy concerns against what I would assume was the advantage to our national security from mandating information-sharing among the…

That difference would have picked up some of the September 11, 2001, hijackers.

PASS ID actually contains within it specific assurance that States and privacy advocates have sought for the protection of the information.

As always in the Congress, we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

All but one of the 9/11 hijackers acquired some form of U.S. identification document, some by fraud.

I would like to work with you and my colleagues on the Committee to see if there is some way we can strengthen this section of the PASS ID without going over the tipping point where we continue to encourage the States not to comply because…

So, if I may interrupt you, that means that assuming nothing else happens in between, that it is under the law the drivers' licenses issued by the States would not be accepted by TSA to gain passage onto airplanes?

I think that Senator Collins has very eloquently laid out what that Committee's charge was in trying to come up with rules that protected privacy while still meeting the 9/11 Commission's goals of flexibility, of standards for issuance and…

Today, we are going to discuss bipartisan legislation sponsored by a number of Members of this Committee.

I want to challenge each of us to work together urgently because my goal, and I know Senator Collins' would be, is to get this PASS ID before that markup on July 29.

It is absolutely true that no State by December 31 will have a REAL ID-compliant document.

The key point of authenticity of identification tools, in this case, drivers' licenses or ID cards: Identity theft is a tremendously large problem.

We give the States flexibility on how to do the re-enrollment so long as everything is complete by 2016.

The Federal Government to set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification.

I opposed the REAL ID Act because I thought ultimately it laid out a very prescriptive, unworkable, and expensive process.

You have 12 States covering 40 million people plus now Missouri, which is another 6 million, that are actually barred from even seeking such an extension.

We need secure identification to thwart potential terrorists.

I would urge the same.

I will say to you that it was our judgment in terms of funding--you are right. Last year, we were able to hold the Federal Protective Service basically harmless on its funding.

Federal buildings are, unfortunately, natural targets for anybody who wants to cause us harm because of their symbolic value and meaning.

There has been inattention at the highest levels of the Department of Homeland Security to the requirements for protecting Federal facilities.

The answer GAO gives us today is simply that FPS is not doing its job.

I take it you do feel that the cuts in funding for the Federal Protective Service are part of the problem here, but by no means the whole problem, that this is an agency in crisis.