AAMVA Blog

AAMVA At the IACP

2012-05-04T17:52:57Z

Brian Ursino, Director of Law Enforcement, attended the IACP Division of State & Provincial Police Southern Region Colonel’s Annual meeting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on May 1, 2012. Brian was on the agenda and provided the Colonel’s and other senior staff with an update of AAMVA Working Groups working under the auspices of the Enforcement Standing Committee; promoted attendance at the upcoming AAMVA Annual International Conference; and solicited nominations for the Martha irwin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Highway Safety. In addition to hearing many other excellent presentations, Brian participated in a tour of Louisiana State Police Headquarters facilities including their Emergency Operations Center and Fusion Center. Here Brian is pictured with a Louisiana State Trooper in the Troopers Association Store.

AAMVA's TWIR In Your Ear - April 20, 2012

2012-05-03T14:59:47Z

ANSI B10 Meetings At AAMVA HQ

2012-05-01T21:13:15Z

AAMVA is hosting national standard meetings this week for the Technical Committee for Identification Cards and Related Devices (B10).

B10 is responsible for the development of national and international standards for use in inter-industry applications and international interchange, e.g.:

* Drivers License/Identification cards

* Physical characteristics and test methods for identification cards

* Integrated circuit cards with contacts

* Contactless integrated circuit cards

* High and low coercivity mag stripe cards

* Optical memory cards

* Machine readable passports & visas

* Health care identification card (national project only)

* Thin flexible cards and tickets with mag stripes (new International project)

This technical committee is the U.S. TAG to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC17 and provides recommendations on U.S. positions to the JTC 1 TAG.

AAMVA Goes Green

2012-04-23T14:01:00Z

By Neil Schuster
AAMVA President & CEO

I enjoyed celebrating Earth Day this past weekend, hitting the road in my all-electric, emissions-free Nissan Leaf, rolling the windows down, and taking in all the beautiful sights and sounds of spring. After all, this is one of the “greenest” times of year here in DC, and I’m thinking of all that we in the motor vehicle administration community can do to help keep the earth a little cleaner and brighter.

An easy place to start is by making sure all the vehicles on the road are adhering to emissions standards. AAMVA’s Vehicle Safety and Inspection Handbook provides information on emissions Inspection and Maintenance programs, and provides an overview of the emissions test strategies followed within the U.S. and Canada. Check out AAMVA’s page on Safety and Emissions Inspections for tons of information and resources to help keep the AAMVA community green.

On the federal side, the Obama administration moved forward just last year with a proposed final rule setting stricter vehicle fuel economy standards. The new standards would require automakers to produce vehicles by 2025 that will achieve a fleet-wide average of 54.5 miles per gallon. It’s an ambitious goal that could mean great things for the environment and might just help make sure the vehicles hitting the roads are a little greener. On the state and local side, AAMVA members play a huge role in supporting jurisdiction efforts. And it is at this level that national and state policies are developed and implemented.

So join me and get outside this week to get a firsthand look at the beautiful earth we at AAMVA are working to protect – maybe it will give you just the inspiration you need to push for a greener tomorrow.

You’ve got WHO on the line?

2012-04-13T17:15:42Z

By Cian Cashin

It’s something akin to those sappy romantic comedies when the protagonist promises they won’t call their ex-significant other. They then grow through the milieu of situational slapstick, and eventually reconcile their differences for a happy ending. I’m not promising a joyful conclusion to the surface transportation measure, but the stars seem to be very slowly aligning.

The latest rumblings are that both chambers have come together in the most fundamental ways. The House Republican leadership has directed the Transportation and infrastructure Committee to draft another version of a short-term extension of Highway Trust Fund programs, taxes and spending authority which would continue to fund programs until the end of fiscal year 2012. (Anybody remember hearing this absolutely would be the “last” short term extension of a bill that should have been resolved two years ago?)

While they seem strange bedfellows, the House plan to move on this 90-day extension (if passed) would allow the Senate to go to conference between the House proposal and their much more extensive two-year measure (S 1813). This is due to the fact that the Senate has already instituted a unanimous consent agreement between the minority and majority leader of the chamber to select any House-passed bill and deem it to be the companion measure to the Senate’s bill. With the moon hanging pastorally in the sky, it seems they’ve found their match in whatever comes out of the House T&I Committee – a kind of political prearranged marriage of legislation if you will.

That being said, there are still some kinks in the process. First of all, the conference between two such unlikely and uncompromising measures could result in a lengthy and disastrous conference. The House is still pushing for inclusion of the Keystone XL pipeline provisions in their measure, and that has proved a large obstacle to moving the measure through both chambers in an efficient manner - President Obama has more than once threatened to veto a highway bill containing such inclusions. On the other hand, the Senate may have chosen the wrong partner to dance with. While it’s the most similar, there are sure to be striking differences between the House priorities and the Senate (as there always have been). That being said, perhaps the timing will show that it’s a small dose of medicine to swallow for both chambers who are more than eager to put the drama of a seemingly simple piece of legislation behind them – and perhaps we can all sigh with pleasure when the two competing measures are forced to share a table. Or perhaps the whole restaurant will catch fire.

AAMVA's TWIR In Your Ear - April 13, 2012

2012-04-13T17:14:39Z

The Smart Money

2012-04-10T18:13:59Z

By Cian Cashin

On March 30th, the day before the current surface transportation extension was set to expire, the President signed into law HR 4281 (PL 112-102) which added another 90 days for deliberation on what was supposed to be a non-controversial measure.

I’m not one to make predictions, but I can see it clearly - three months from now, a Congressional leader will likely be promising us that “this is absolutely, positively the last surface transportation extension to pass this Congress.” Where have I heard that before? What, realistically, is going to change between now and then?

Senate Democrats logically suggested advancing their version of the measure (S. 1813) quickly rather than filing for another extension because three months from now will be far past the prime season for reinvigorated transportation infrastructure investments. And for those of us that enjoy traveling in the summer, think about the impacts of stalling those long-range plans until just prior to the July 4th holiday. That means an absolute glut of orange cones, not spaced rhythmically throughout the summer, but landing all at once. That means states desperately awaiting the stability and confidence of providing infrastructure projects (read in this election as a “jobs package”). States will forgo the first three months of the building season in areas where transportation infrastructure is the most easily equitable transformation to immediate employment upswings – a huge commodity in an election year where the economy has been the primary voter concern. If that isn’t enough to move compromise on the measure, what is?

Speaker Boehner has indicated that the House will return to moving its own measure once they return from their recess on April 16th. But if memory serves, that measure had difficulty getting out of Committee and was not broadly supported enough within the House Republican caucus to move it to the House floor. This measure stands no chance of being passed in the Democratic Senate. The events transpiring in regards to the House Transportation proposal have all the hallmarks of a daytime soap – sometimes terrible to watch, but keeps you glued to the details just to witness what will happen next.

With what I’ve seen so far the smart money lies in a return to the same situation in three months. Congress will have other priorities that will take precedence, and they’ll defer the incontrovertible until a later date. The real question is who will be promising us it’s the last extension this time? Get your office pools started, my money is on déjà vu.

AAMVA's TWIR In Your Ear - April 6, 2012

2012-04-06T16:40:47Z

AAMVA'sTWIR In Your Ear - March 30, 2012

2012-03-30T19:11:47Z

Representatives Gather in Geneva and Brussels to Discuss Road Safety and Licensing

2012-03-29T13:35:21Z

By Mike Calvin, Senior Advisor, Strategic Initiatives, AAMVA

I attended the 63rd Session of the Economic Commission for Europe, Inland Transport Committee’s Working Party on Road Traffic Safety (WP1), in Geneva, Switzerland on March 19-22, 2012. There were 60 plus representatives from around the world in attendance, including Jeffrey Michael, Associate Administrator from NHTSA representing the United States. WP1 meets twice a year. This is the Working Party within the UN responsible for the Road Safety and Licensing provisions of the Geneva and Vienna Conventions of 1948 and 1968 respectively. I attend the WP1 meetings as a representative of ISO and the work that AAMVA is involved with internationally in the “Standards” arena as it relates to Driver Licensing and the Driver License document. Learn more about WP1 at http://www.unece.org/trans/main/welcwp1.html

I was also in Brussels, Belgium, meeting with one of AAMVA’s sister organization’s in Europe, CIECA. CIECA is the International Commission for Driver Testing Authorities, active in the fields of Road Safety and Driver Testing. They have 56 member jurisdictions and organizations from 36 countries worldwide. The focus of my trip, was to begin discussions with their leadership on ways that AAMVA and CIECA can start working closer together. Learn more about CIECA at http://www.cieca.be/

Remember me… Real ID?

2012-03-22T20:15:25Z

By Cian Cashin

After a bit of a hiatus from the national spotlight, this week the United States House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security drudged out their shovels and raised the specter of Real ID. This was not the incensing inquisition many had expected from a Republican-led House Committee addressing a Democratic administration in an election year. The purpose of the Committee seemed to be to draw definitive answers on two conditions – the status of DHS guidance documentation, and a confirmation that the Department of Homeland Security did NOT plan on extending the deadline for Real ID.

David Heyman, the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Policy for DHS claimed that AAMVA and the states could expect guidance documentation from the Department in “the coming weeks”, (afterwards reported in transcripts as four) and that DHS “has no plans” to extend the deadline on Real ID compliance.

Mr. Sensenbrenner accepted the answers from DHS, and noted that he wanted to have a private discussion with the Secretary on the subject. Secretary Napolitano was scheduled before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Oversight that afternoon reviewing their 2013 budget, so was not expected to attend.

Much of the questioning to panelists regarded why the law has not developed more quickly. David Quam from the National Governor’s Association (NGA) noted that there are two relatively important considerations with respect to Real ID development– the evolution and progression of Real ID between rulemakings and the red herring of PASS ID, and that there has been a lack of guidance, lack of in-place technology solutions, and unrealistic implementation timeline given the lack of guidance on the Act.

Darrell Williams, the former program manager for Real ID, noted points on the technical nature of Real ID, including some of the obstacles facing the program and where he faced his greatest challenges. He also testified on the structural difficulties of expectations in light of a changing dynamic. AAMVA (and its membership) were mentioned by both DHS and NGA as state partners in the effort to offer solutions and guidance where applicable. CDLIS was offered by Mr. Williams as an example of a workable solution that successfully addressed privacy concerns in the context of matching licensing and identity with reliability.

The Committee on both sides sent the message that they have not forgotten or neglected the program. This message, however, needs to be considered in the light of the numerous tangential issues that are inherent components of Real ID – everything from immigration and civil liberties protections to privacy and voter identification. That being said, Real ID remains as politically polarizing as ever, and it may not be something the Republican House wants to press too urgently in an election year. On the other extreme, it may serve as a political card to be played at an opportune time.

AAMVA's TWIR In Your Ear - March 22, 2012

2012-03-22T19:46:29Z

The Policy Rider Monkey Wrench

2012-03-01T18:28:48Z

By Cian Cashin, Senior Manager, Government Affairs, AAMVA

With the House version of the highway surface transportation measure going the way of the dodo, I figured the Senate’s version was a shoe-in. For those of you not following the House progress, after spending the last few weeks trying to corral the votes needed to move the House version to the full House floor, Speaker Boehner threw his hands in the air and admitted defeat. The House version was ambitious in many ways, including a new direction in state allocation formulae, and a new direction for securing revenue into the Highway Trust Fund. But while ambitious in aligning a new budgetary direction, the need for a concrete measure that could be fully realized prior to the March expiration of the last continuing resolution proved too much to digest in too short a timeframe. With all this in hand, and realizing his party may not be as behind him as he thought, the Speaker entered the President’s Day recess first declaring a hiatus in consideration of the proposal, quickly followed with a statement indicating the House would need to retool the entire package into a more digestible short-term measure. Initial indications were that it would be more aligned with the Senate’s timeframe, clearing the way for discussions on how to align both measures for a truly bipartisan effort between chambers.

At least that was the intention. If this were a movie, the camera would freeze frame on that oft used, but never practiced word “bipartisan” and slo-mo wipe to where we stand today. With a more traditional measure in the Senate that seemed attuned to quick passage, we get a more realistic sense of what bipartisanship means in an election year. The Senate, who was primed to start accepting amendments and limiting debate on their surface transportation legislation may have opened the door just a bit too widely. Things seemed to be going well, and many believed we would have a motion towards floor consideration this week. Then that ever-present and menacing policy rider was thrown into the mix. The monkey wrench holding up the process this time came in the form of Senator Roy Blunt’s (R-MO) amendment to the Senate transportation measure which would allow any employer to deny health coverage for contraceptives and other preventative health care services to their employees. Could there be a more controversial series of policy questions rolled into a non-germane piece of legislation? This amendment effectively asks the Congress to reconsider such issues as women’s rights, the extent of religious imperative to be deciphered from the President’s health care package, and employer-employee rights and responsibilities in one fell-swoop. Instead of focusing on the task at hand, the Congress will dedicate much needed time and attention away from rebuilding our infrastructure and improving safety and instead enter a fractious debate that could hold implications for legislative support as a whole for the Senate measure.

I leave our readers this week with a couple of questions. What does contraception have to do with the highway bills? My guess is everything and nothing. If the debate stalls consideration long enough, does that give Speaker Boehner time to readdress the longer-term highway measure the House initially proposed and whip party members into supporting it (or something similar)? Will it serve as a landmine in the Senate? Where will we be when the dust settles? My hope was that the Senate measure would find quick support for a two-year bill that would provide much needed consistency while a long-term measure could truly receive the consideration it deserves – but this year, everything seemingly simple is sure to be met with chaos. The most appropriate weekly simile for the transportation bill is that the more we spin our wheels, the deeper we become mired in the mud.

A Tale of Two Trainwrecks…

2012-02-21T15:34:42Z

By Cian Cashin

By the time I complete writing this, I fully recognize that it will be out of date. The pace of the two competing highway reauthorization measures has intensified drastically; and the best analogy I can come up with for their progress is the following – it is like fielding two little league teams for batting practice, on the same field, facing each other. Ask any of the numerous tykes shagging fly balls where the play is, and they’ll not only be unable to answer, but drop the ball in the process. The situation is rife with the possibility for collision, confusion and conflict, and both chambers are aggressively pursuing their own versions of how they anticipate the highway measures should be used to shape the nation’s future.

The House Republican proposal met with numerous obstacles in the past week, most notably that the proposed funding mechanism for HR 7 was awaiting a report from the Congressional Budget Office that would lend credence to the legislation’s ability to maintain solvency of the Highway Trust Fund. CBO released estimates that jeopardized those funding mechanisms by revealing that the proposal would leave a $500 million gap in the account by the end of 2016 and would face a $78 billion shortfall after ten years if enacted. With the report narrowly preceding a House Rules Committee markup on Tuesday it left the door wide open for numerous (to the tune of 241) amendments to be filed on the bill and increased skepticism from supporters and critics alike. In order to better manage the funding aspects of the legislation, and to shore up the votes needed to pass the bill, House Republicans decided that the most manageable way to address the measure would be to divide the legislation into three separate components. The two spinoff provisions of the bill would deal directly with the funding mechanisms and keep the debate limited to the most divisive measures included in the legislation rather than related directly to passage of HR 7 itself. The spinoff provisions include one that would force federal employees to pay more for their retirement plans (HR 3813) with offsets dedicated to assisting transportation funding, and another (HR 3408) that would open up domestic oil and gas drilling to place additional revenues in the Highway Trust Fund. These measures had initially been inclusive as part of HR 7, but without confidence that they would assist its movement, they were ordered for separate consideration. Implications for this separation after the Rules Committee had already delineated the legislation’s debate complicates measures vastly – not the least of which is developing some sort of conformity between the legislation’s proposed budget and the waiver towards spending limits included in the Ryan budget. With internal concern being voiced over fiscal conservancy and its importance for a long-standing measure, the Republicans announced early Wednesday in a closed-door meeting that final passage of the House’s transportation bill will likely not be addressed or completed until after the President’s Day recess. While the party gets its votes in order to facilitate passage, Speaker Boehner has opened the door to allowing even more amendments, and is quoted as saying he offers it as “a chance to offer amendments and have a full debate on the floor. This is a debate we WANT to have.” The volume of amendments partnered with the contentious nature of getting the legislation out of Committee (let alone the House floor as a whole) will make the next few weeks in the House very interesting indeed.

The Senate’s more deliberate, traditional approach (S. 1813) to reauthorizing the transportation measure plods along a very different route. The Senate voted along more bipartisan lines (85-11) last week to proceed with the bill. That being said, the Senate version is not without strange bedfellows of its own. Amongst the amendments offered to the bill is one that would allow any employer to opt out of the President’s contraceptive coverage mandate and on that would bar foreign aid for Egypt’s transitional government until it drops charges against Americans working for NGO’s. Senate Majority Leader Reid voiced concern about opening the door to a series of amendments that were not germane to the issue at hand and asked for limits to the amendment process from his colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated that he would like to see the Senate continue towards the open process demonstrated by their agreement on insider trading restrictions on members of Congress the body deliberated upon last week. He undoubtedly would like to see the Senate make a final determination on the Keystone XL pipeline amendment being offered, one the President has rebuffed in remarks repeatedly over the past few weeks.

AAMVA's TWIR In You Ear - February 17, 2012

2012-02-17T21:27:33Z

Land of 10,000 lakes, and about that many projects . . .

2012-02-16T15:40:25Z

By Sheila Prior, Director, Regional Member Support, Regions III & IV, AAMVA

Part of my job is to visit the jurisdictions in Regions III and IV. I enjoy these visits and learning about the programs, challenges and successes of the states and provinces. This week I had the chance to visit with the folks in Minnesota. At some point during every visit I have this thought . . . “that’s the weirdest thing I ever heard”. My trip to Minneapolis was no different. In this case it was after learning that their workweek runs Wednesday through Tuesday. No one seemed to know why this is the case, just that they’ve done so forever. I was interested to learn how the 21 day government shutdown last summer affected staff, processes and customers. If an agreement wasn’t reached by midnight on June 30, employees were directed to stay home. Can you imagine the atmosphere at Driver and Vehicle Services, with such uncertainty looming? Think about the preparation needed to close shop for an unknown period of time. Then imagine the overflowing fax machines, the boxes of unopened mail, the loss of staff, and the immediate backlogs in virtually every area upon returning to work. Wow! Minnesota, like most jurisdictions, has more pots on the stove than there are burners. With system redesign kick-off imminent, they’ve approached recent IT projects as a testing ground for MNLARS. They are preparing to issue EDLs starting in January. They recently went through a website redesign for which feedback is positive. They are six months into implementation of their ignition interlock law and are ready to roll out the CDL medical program. The state patrol - that unlike most state police agencies do not have a complement of troopers, but an appropriation from which officers are hired - is preparing for a new class of recruits. In-service training and performance appraisal programs have been revamped and more web based training is being rolled out. Ok, maybe not 10,000 projects, but certainly enough to keep them busy for many months to come.

Rip Van Cashin

2012-02-14T13:38:09Z

By Cian Cashin, Senior Manager, Government Affairs, AAMVA

It’s been a while, and like the old Rip Van Winkle of lore, I woke from the relative quiet of the holidays with a start, looked around me, and realized a lot had changed between December of 2011 and January of 2012. So with the myriad issues that have been keeping me away from communicating them with our loyal readership, I think it best if we just jump right into the reinvigorated energy surrounding Capitol Hill these days – energy that’s not just dedicated to the pace of the Republican primary events.

Foremost amongst the surprises of the New Year was the Congressional intent to start pushing a surface transportation reauthorization prior to the most recent extension expiring on March 31^st. For those of you doing a double take, you are not alone. When the news reached AAMVA of this aggressive timeframe, I thought it likely to be political posturing from just one chamber of Congress, who often uses such tactics to point the finger at the other chamber when divided by party control – but this is apparently not the case at all. Both chambers have jumped towards tackling some substantive measure prior to the President’s Day recess. In my opinion, this action is likely spurred by the horrendous public polling figures on the general acceptance of our representative government’s work on Capitol Hill. In an effort to retain their jobs, and to ensure the public they are not “broken” as many pundits have recently opined, the Congress returned to the transportation reauthorization measure as something that was non-divisive and that could be leveraged as a necessary piece of legislation that carries the all-important association of “creating jobs” prior to elections. The two measures, as noted in previous blogs on the subject, had been so far apart in every aspect that the thought of negotiation on such wide-ranging bills seemed implausible and unrealistic. Welcome to the New Year, and the new push to get things done. In the past weeks, the House has outlined a timeframe and begun drafting measures that could, theoretically, start building the foundation for a true measure to work its way through both chambers. At this point, those measures are being closely guarded by Congressional staff, and are not available to the public by general download (even the hard copies being circulated on the Hill are subject to watermarking and other security measures.) That being said, there are essentially two very big obstacles to address in beginning the collaborative process. Both chambers must agree on the timeframe of the bill (everything from 2 years in the Senate to 6 in the House had previously been on the table) and determine a viable funding mechanism for the bill to ensure the programs outlaid receive the funding they need. Most notably on this subject is the ensured solvency of the Highway Trust Fund. Many experts feel that numbers soon to be released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will help legislators look at just how much additional revenue must be produced in order to keep our nation’s safety and infrastructure programs running smoothly – and those numbers outlining just how threadbare the Trust Fund remains are expected in the coming week. These are not going to be easy arguments to placate in just a few months. They strike at the heart of both parties, with the House recommending a tie-in between expanded oil and gas drilling in federal waters and public lands with a funding mechanism that runs contrary to traditional Democratic environmental and green energy concerns. However, that being said, there is much to take from the consensual agreement that the Congress must pass an infrastructure and highway safety measure. This general agreement, and the agreement that it must be done soon has not been a hallmark of this Congress. If they actually both publicly agree on moving an issue – it is very likely that it will move. So in the coming weeks, be prepared to see a glut of information on its progress and comparison as it fans its way through Congress like a violent forest fire. While it’s easy to hope for its passage, even something as seemingly non-divisive as the surface transportation reauthorization will carry hard-line party ideals to the brink and make for a very interesting and compressed few weeks on Capitol Hill.

AAMVA's TWIR In Your Ear - February 10, 2012

2012-02-10T21:19:04Z

License Plate Design and its Impact on ALPRs

2012-02-10T13:57:11Z

Sheila Prior
Director, Regions III & IV, Member Support

I spent the last couple of days with AAMVA’s Automated License Plate Reader Working Group who met in Phoenix to edit a draft version of a best practices document. The group includes a myriad of experts from motor vehicle agencies, law enforcement entities, license plate vendors, toll authorities and ALPR manufacturers, each of whom brought their unique perspective to the table. It was fascinating to learn a little bit about how ALPRs work. It’s much more complicated than I had ever thought about. They first have to detect the vehicle, then locate the plate image, then separate the background from the license plate number, extract the number, determine the jurisdiction, and finally hand-off the number to back end systems. All of this requires a bunch of engineering expertise and is without a doubt fairly complicated. The fact that an ALPR can read hundreds of plate numbers in a fairly short timeframe makes this a technology that will continue to increase in use, by law enforcement and others. We learned about some of the challenges ALPRs face including “noisy” backgrounds, poorly designed fonts, weather conditions, encroaching symbols and designs, and much more. Stacked characters and the use of non-alphanumerics and determining whether they are or are not, part of the official license plate number poses additional challenges. Some unofficial math shows there are more than 6,000 different license plate designs in the U.S. and Canada. And it’s a well known fact that the number of specialty plates increases exponentially every year. Until this week, I never gave a thought to the fact that every time a new plate design is issued, the ALPR manufacturers must go through their machinations to enable the technology to function with the new plate. It is these concerns that resulted in the formation of the working group to develop best practices for the design and manufacture of license plates. The results of their efforts will be available within the next year and after watching the group at work for a couple of days, I’ve no doubt the final product will be something the jurisdictions will want to pay attention to.

AAMVA's TWIR In Your Ear - February 3, 2012

2012-02-03T21:18:47Z