Is there any better evidence that the Real ID Act was poorly conceived and given too little consideration than the fact that the deadline for state implementation is less than 18 months away from the time the draft standards will be released?

FCW.com - Real ID draft regs due by year's end:

By the end of the year, the Homeland Security Department will issue draft regulations specifying how states should implement mandatory federal standards for driver's licenses. But several states have already gotten started.

According to the statute, the states will have until May 11, 2008, to implement the requirements that "the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures stated . . . will cost $11 billion over five years to comply with the law, which will reduce efficiencies and increase wait times." In other words, the Department of Homeland Security has taken longer to develop a draft of the regulations than the states will have to implement this multi-billion dollar fiasco.

A better piece of legislation aimed at this problem could have preserved privacy, made implementation easier for the states, and laid out a more realistic timeline for implementation. Instead, we got the Real ID Act.