NH CASPIAN, a consumer privacy group, has been following various pieces of legislation in the State House, and found one very important bill that has national implications.

HB1582 says simply that New Hampshire shall not participate in the REAL ID Act. As you probably know, the REAL ID act was signed into law by Bush last May, and creates a de facto national ID card by forcing every state across the country to share its driver’s license database with all the others states and the federal government. Here in New Hampshire, privacy options we have such as removing our picture from the state database and showing a mailing address on our license will become illegal. (see the ACLU's site at http://www.realnightmare.org )

New Hampshire has a long tradition of respecting its citizens. The House understood that, and voted overwhelmingly to pass HB1582. Now the Senate will have its turn. We need to insure that the Senate will represent the will of the people and pass HB1582. The two things that our Senators will respect are public pressure and media attention. To help generate these, NH CASPIAN and a diverse coalition of organizations are staging a public rally on the steps of the State Capitol on April 22nd, from 11-1.

Visit http://www.nhcaspian.org/norealid.shtml to see what we are working on and to read the exciting story of how the House passed the bill.

Joel Winters
NH CASPIAN