Pass ID was introduced in the U.S. Senate today. It will be added to the Bills in Congress page of this site once it is available online.
Secretary Napolitano of Homeland Security had this to say about the bill:
Today’s introduction of Pass ID in the U.S. Senate brings us closer to greater compliance with federal standards for secure driver’s licenses and better protection against terrorists and other threats nationwide,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Pass ID is a cost-effective, common-sense solution that balances critical security requirements with the input and practical needs of state governments. I am committed to supporting this important bill and it is my hope that Congress will pass it into law as quickly as possible.
CDT issued a press release that says, in part:
“The PASS ID Act addresses most of the major privacy and security concerns with REAL ID,” said Ari Schwartz, Vice-President of CDT. “The approach this bill proposes will go a long way towards increasing the reliability of driver’s licenses and ID cards in a privacy protective way.”
To help prevent loss or inappropriate use of personal data, the bill would make changes to the standards and practices used by states in handling personally identifiable information (PII) and would require privacy and security protections for PII collected and stored in connection with the issuance of driver’s licenses. States would be required to establish safeguards to protect PII in DMV databases, adopt procedures to prevent unauthorized access and use of PII, and create a process for cardholders to access and correct their own information.
CDT also released a chart comparing Real ID to Pass ID:
http://www.cdt.org/security/20090615_PASS_ID_chart.pdf