Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .
Wow! The Maine legislature just passed a resolution refusing to comply with the federal REAL ID Act, and calling on Congress to repeal it.
The vote was overwhelming. The Maine Senate voted for the resolution 34 to ZERO, while the Maine House passed it 137 to 4!
Ouch! That’s a real spanking for Congress. Now . . .
The REAL ID Act is on the ropes, so it’s time to throw as many hard punches as we can. Please send more messages to Congress today asking them to repeal the REAL ID Act. Here’s what I’m going to say in my message:
“I notice that the Maine legislature has refused to comply with the REAL ID Act, and they’ve asked you to repeal it. Surely you know that more states are going to follow Maine’s lead. There are already similar bills pending in Georgia, Massachusetts, Montana and Washington. Please read the handwriting on the wall and take immediate steps to repeal this bad law. Don’t try to fix it. Just repeal it. I don’t want centralized databases and controls over my personal information. The federal government has shown itself completely incompetent to manage and properly use the powers and tools it already has. Perhaps if you spent more time having the federal government do less, it would stand a better chance of doing a few things reasonably well. Please repeal REAL ID now!”
But this isn’t the only punch I plan to throw . . .
One of the reasons REAL ID is such a bad law, and one of the reasons it’s in so much trouble, is because Congress didn’t bother to sweat the details. As usual, they merely issued general directives and guidelines, and left the nitty-gritty details to the un-elected bureaucracy. So I’m going to use Downsize DC’s “Write the Laws Act” to throw another punch. Here’s the message I’m sending to Congress about “Write the Laws”
:”The REAL ID Act is a perfect example of why you need to sponsor DownsizeDC.org’s “Write the Laws Act.” Congress didn’t bother to attend to the details when you passed REAL ID. You left those details to the un-elected bureaucrats in the Department of Homeland Security. But those details turn out to be unworkable, expensive, and dangerous. You would have known this in advance if you’d taken the time to work out the details for yourselves. Please start doing this. Please start doing your jobs. Please stop delegating your legislative power to unelected bureaucrats. Please repeal REAL ID and please sponsor DownsizeDC.org’s “Write the Laws Act.”
Could you please take the time to throw two similar punches of your own . . .
Ask Congress to repeal the REAL ID Act here.
Ask Congress to introduce and pass “Write the Laws” here.
Let’s press while the pressure is on.
Also, Jim Babka is on the radio again today, resuming his regular Friday appearance with Jerry Hughes.
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Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.