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COLUMBIA - Governor Mark Sanford on Monday responded to the federal government's REAL ID mandate, asking that our state's citizens not be treated differently from other states that have laws on their books preventing the implementation of the national ID card program.

In a letter sent today to the US Department of Homeland Security, Governor Sanford pointed to a law passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Sanford in 2007, which prevents the state from complying with the Real ID Act. Homeland Security has said that an extension request is a form of compliance with Real ID. The governor has respectfully asked the Department of Homeland Security not to inconvenience South Carolinians who fly or enter federal buildings, given that our state's driver's licenses are already some of the most secure in the country - and given what DHS has elected to do with other states that have the same law.

"At the end of the day, I'm duty-bound to uphold the laws of our state, which right now say we can't comply with Real ID," Gov. Sanford said. "That being said, I do fall into the camp that believes Real ID is poor public policy for any number of reasons, and we have some real questions as to whether the benefits in terms of security outweigh the costs in terms of time and money. We think the state legislature did the right thing last year when it said no to Real ID, and I'm going to keep working with Homeland Security and with other governors to keep this law from negatively impacting our state."

In his letter to Homeland Security, Governor Sanford pointed out the following facts:

- South Carolina's Department of Motor Vehicles has already met - on its own - roughly 90 percent of the benchmarks the federal government has laid out for making ID's more secure.

- Congress has not debated Real ID as this legislation did not see hearings in the House or Senate.

- Real ID is a more than $9 billion unfunded federal mandate that would cost South Carolinians $116 million over 10 years, and mean wait times of up to two hours at the DMV.

- Real ID presents privacy concerns for all Americans on a range of fronts.

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