Much Work Ahead on Cards

The transition to a common government-wide ID card is likely to span several more years at least. Under a presidential directive, agencies were required to begin issuing cards complying with the new government-wide standards by October 27, but most of them met that goal mainly in a technical way, issuing only a handful of cards. Officials said that DoD, for example, issued about 10 or 20–out of a civilian workforce of some 700,000. The new cards have additional security features, including pictures and fingerprints embedded on a computer chip within the card. Beyond the practical considerations of issuing so many cards, the government will have to install a vast number of card-reading devices and either make them compatible with current security systems or replace those systems.