4/8/10
It is the only explanation for transforming a simple bill designed to insure that we won’t have to carry around an ID card with a RFID chip in it into a law that would actually allow REAL ID or a similar policy to be implemented in Oklahoma.
OK-SAFE explains;
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark (Oklahoma).”
Hamlet, Act I, Scene IV. Shakespeare
It appears the Big Government lobbyist has successfully found someone to amend HB 2569 for Senator Newberry.
Senator Randy Bass has filed a floor amendment to HB 2569, to allow for RFID-enabled “enhanced drivers licenses” (EDLs) in OK.
EDLs have an RFID tracking chip in the them and are part of the federal government push toward creating an national/international ID card. EDLs further the implementation of the notoriously controversial Real ID Act of 2005,.
Oklahoma passed a law opposing in 2007., namely SB 464.
Title 47, Section 6-110.3 states:
2. The State of Oklahoma shall not participate in the implementation of the REAL ID Act of 2005. The Department of Public Safety is hereby directed not to implement the provisions of the REAL ID Act of 2005 and to report to the Governor and the Legislature any attempt by agencies or agents of the United States Department of Homeland Security to secure the implementation of the REAL ID Act of 2005 through the operations of that or any other state department.
The Bass amendment , if adopted, is violating OK law and would be the legislative ‘foot in the door’ for putting chips in all the OK DL/ID cards and implement the provisions of the Real ID Act of 2005, which against OK statute. This needs to be stopped.
Calls are needed to Senator Bass to and all of the Senators to vote NO on the Bass amendment.
The Bass amendment defeats the purpose of the original bill language and reveals the tactics used by the RFID industry who apparently will stoop to any means possible to gain access to our drivers licenses.
Sen.Bass: 1-405-521-5567
Email: bass@oksenate.gov
To Find Your Senator: htttp://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/
Senate toll free: 1-800-865-6490
Bass Amendatory language filed 4/7/10:
“8. Nothing in Paragraph 7 of Subsection A of this act shall prohibit the Department of Public Safety from establishing an enhanced driver license in the state that shall only be issued at the written request of a citizen of the state who is applying for an original, renewal, or replacement driver license. The application must be notarized by an Oklahoma Notary Public as to the applicant being the person applying for such enhanced driver license. The Department may charge a reasonable fee to produce the enhanced driver license and all money shall be deposited into the Department of Public Safety Revolving Fund for operations of the Department of Public Safety.”
Please vote no on the Bass amendment.
From OK-SAFE’s 4/5/10 Action Alert:
The Issue:
Representing a firm called HID Global, big government lobbyist Jim Dunlap is pushing to amend HB 2569, a bill which prohibits imbedding/affixing/adhering a radio frequency identification (RFID) device or RFID-type ink into or on to the OK drivers license or state-issued identification cards.
HID Global, a member of the Security Industry Association (SIA), and working through lobbyist Jim Dunlap, seeks to open the door to enhanced drivers licenses (EDLs), in OK. (EDLs contain an RFID tracking chip.)
HID Global happens to make RFID chips and other types of ‘smartcard’ access technology and is part of ASSA ABLOY, who make secure door systems.
OK State Senator Dan Newberry, Senate author of HB 2569, initially said he would be honored to run this bill, agreeing with the principle that people are not inventory to be tagged and tracked.
However, Senator Newberry, after visits by the special-interest-group-paid lobbyist Dunlap, appears to waffling in his position.
Last week, giving the same talking points as lobbyist Dunlap, Newberry offered OK-SAFE the ‘opportunity to draft language as tight as possible’ to both prohibit RFID chips in the OK drivers license and allow them, via “opting in”.
OK-SAFE suggests that the Senator read the bill – it is already as ‘tight as possible’ by prohibiting the privacy-busting chip in the OK drivers license.
By wanting to amend this bill, it appears the Senator is now saying he wants to open the door for future ‘chipping’ of the OK drivers license.
Does Senator Newberry really want to be known as the Senator who put the chip in the OK drivers license?
OK-SAFE declined the offer to draft any such amendment, stating that they will not be party to an effort to open the legislative door for future tracking devices to be imbedded in the OK driver license.
SIA and State Legislation:
Senator Kenneth Corn introduced SB 1164 in 2009, which would have made the OK DL/ID card REAL ID compliant, and utilized RFID chips in the DL/ID cards.
SIA supported SB 1164 in 2009 and opposed HB 2569 in 2010 – SIA representative Tom O’Connor called the House author of HB 2569 on 1/26/10 asking him to withdraw the bill.
HB 2569, as originally written, is Popular in OK:
HB 2569sailed through the OK House on 3/4/10 with a veto-proof majority (76-13) and added 2 additional House members as co-sponsors, bringing the total House co-sponsors to 8. (Update 4/5/10: Sen. Sykes has signed on as co-author; 2 more House co-sponsors have been added, bringing the total to 10.)
HB 2569, with $0 fiscal impact, passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, 3/31/10 by a hefty majority vote of 17-3, with title off.
Per Appropriations Chair Senator Mike Johnson, and Senate rules, bills with $0 fiscal impact, with title off, may be moved to the Senate floor, and avoid going to what is called ‘conference committee’, a shadowy procedure where bills are amended with no oversight.
At this point, if anyone amends HB 2569 the amendment will have taken place on Senator Newberry’s watch, making him responsible for putting the chip in the OK drivers license.
Senator Newberry has the power to move HB 2569 to the Senate floor, avoiding conference committee altogether.
Tell the Senators to Resist the Chip!
Please call your Senator today – ask that they stand strong on the original language in HB 2569 and say NO to the chip.
OK Senate Toll Free: 1-800-865-6490
Direct: 1-405-524-0126
To Find Your Senator: http://www.lsb.state.ok.us/
To Check Campaign Contributions of your Elected Official:
Follow the Money: http://www.followthemoney.com
OK State Ethics Commission: http://www.ok.gov/oec/
To see campaign contributions, click on Campaign Reporting, then follow the links to see the C-1R reports of campaign contributions.
AxXiom for Liberty 
Pingback: Axxiom: Oklahoma Senator Performs Magic – Calls Needed to Block RFID chips in DLs « R3publican: Restore * Reenergize * Reignite
What’s the big deal? ALL legislators know magic tricks.
1. They know how to make millions of taxpayer dollars (and common sense) disappear
2. They are contortionists, so flexible they can twist their heads around to their anuses and insert head within.
It is laughable that a card that is supposed to be used for international border crossings is even being offered in OK. The fact that it is shows that EDLs are a backdoor method for implementing some of the things the feds want with REAL ID/PASS ID, but in a way that they can make seem more voluntary. The whole thing is nuts, they are charging $135 for a federal passport, but then saying you can pay $45 for an EDL?!? Why not charge $45 for a real passport and keep international/federal/state documents separate. These EDLs are also being pushed onto citizens in Canada and Mexico (British Columbia is already offering them), EDLs are nothing more than another attempt by AAMVA to create a north american drivers license. In addition to the RFID chip, anyone who gets an EDL will have their data shared with these countries. If enough people gets EDLs, look for the feds to push them as a “compromise” to REAL ID and for them to require EDLs for even DOMESTIC air travel. Its not what they call the card program that matters, it’s what it does that you have to prevent. EDLs for OK is not a compromise we should make.