BILL ANALYSIS
AB 468
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Date of Hearing: April 2, 2001
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
John Dutra, Chair
AB 468 (Cohn) - As Amended: April 16, 2001
SUBJECT : Duplicate driver's licenses; replacement ID cards
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to
inspect photo ID's or its own photographic files prior to
issuing a duplicate driver's license, or replacement
identification (ID) cards. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires DMV, prior to issuing a duplicate driver's license,
to obtain from the applicant satisfactory proof of his or her
identity, including a valid identification document that
contains a photograph of the applicant.
2)Requires DMV, in the absence of an applicant presenting a
valid identification document, to verify the applicant's
identity by inspecting its own photographic files from the
licensee's prior license or ID card.
EXISTING LAW requires an applicant for a duplicate driver's
license to provide satisfactory proof that the original license
has been lost, destroyed, or mutilated.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The bill is intended to deal with one of the means
by which "identity theft" is commonly perpetrated in California.
In the situation addressed by the bill, the thief applies for a
duplicate license or a replacement ID card in the name of an
unsuspecting licensee, simply by claiming to be that person and
asserting that his or her original license or ID card has been
lost or destroyed. If successful, the identity thief can then
establish credit, write checks, apply for jobs, or do any number
of things in the name of the victim. When this practice came to
light last year, DMV began to tighten its procedures to assure
that applicants for duplicate licenses or replacement IDs were
indeed the persons they claimed to be. This bill would confirm
in statute one of the major recently-initiated DMV reforms meant
to deter identity theft.
Similar to this bill, both AB 125 (Leach) and SB 766 (Karnette)
AB 468
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would require DMV to check its photographic files prior to
issuing a duplicate driver's license or replacement ID.
However, unlike this bill, the measures authored by
Assemblywoman Leach and Senator Karnette do not allow DMV to
accept other forms of photo ID in lieu of checking its own
files. In 2000, Assemblywoman Leach authored AB 2382 which
would have required DMV to check its photographic files as a
condition of issuing any duplicate driver's license or
replacement ID. That bill passed this committee unanimously but
died on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Current DMV policy lists several forms of documentation as being
adequate to identify the applicant for a duplicate license
(e.g., a passport, military ID, US Citizen ID, or the mutilated
license itself). By allowing these forms of identification to
be offered by applicants, both DMV policy and this bill allow
DMV to minimize processing delays while assuring that duplicate
licenses and replacement IDs are issued only to appropriate
persons.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None received
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093