Sometimes common sense isn't so common. That certainly applies to Mr. Jeff Landfield's editorial attack in the Dispatch about my HB1 driver's license legislation. My bill passed the House with flying colors, the Senate State Affairs Committee, and now resides in the Senate Rules Committee awaiting action. I have the votes in the Senate to pass that bill, as soon as the Rules Chair chooses to send it to the Senate floor for a vote, hopefully in January.
Currently, if a foreign visitor enters Alaska legally, with a visa or other legal presence document that expires in two weeks, they can march into the DMV and get an Alaska driver's license for five years. That doesn't make sense.
HB1 is simple. It merely permits the DMV to issue a driver's license for fewer than five years. If the visa has an expiration date for fewer than five years, say two years, the DMV would then issue the license for two years. The only thing different on the driver's license is the expiration date. Everything else would look exactly the same.
When my driver's license expires, I have to get a new one just like everybody else. Shouldn't visitors from other countries have to do the same?
When a cop stops someone for a traffic violation, checking out their driver's license is routine. If the license is expired, the driver would likely get a ticket for driving with an expired license, plus for whatever other violation they may have committed. That's the same for all of us.
Look at your Alaska driver's license. It shows an expiration date, not an issue date. A cop probably won't know the driver is a foreign national, and will have no way of looking at the license and telling the license was issued for less than five years. The cop doesn't call immigration. The officer just gives the offender a ticket and goes back on patrol.
If the visitor's legal-presence document is for an indefinite period, my bill permits the DMV to issue the license for one year, with free one-year renewals for up to five years. That's more than fair.
Under HB1, the DMV would merely look at whatever document the applicant presents, to determine for what period the driver's license is issued. DMV is authorized by state statute and is fully capable of issuing regulations to ease the process of implementing HB1.
I agree with Mr. Landfield. The DMV is not an immigration agency. Doesn't have to be. The DMV already looks at documents presented by non-citizen applicants for a license. They do this every day. The DMV has a lot of smart people who know how to do their job. A clerk doesn't have to be an immigration official or an attorney to look at any document's expiration date. The DMV has testified before various committees in our Legislature and have never expressed any concern about this matter.
Some claim foreign students would be burdened by perhaps having to go to the DMV from time to time to take care of their driver's license status. So?
We have an outstanding university system in Alaska. Anyone admitted to our university is surely smart enough, and should be motivated enough, to take care of business needed to continue their education in Alaska.
The soft bigotry of low expectations shouldn't be pushed onto our good foreign students, the DMV, or anyone else. We want all drivers to be safe on our streets. Passing a driver's license test helps.
Mr. Landfield claims my bill "originated from the American Legislative Council (ALEC)," a private political advocacy group that's an anathema to left-wing activists. Not so. I never spoke to anyone at ALEC about my bill or read any of their literature on that subject. My bill originated from me alone. I'm responsible for it. Nobody else. At my request, Alaska's own Legislative Affairs lawyers drafted my bill. They draft bills for everyone in our State House. The kindest thing I can say is that Mr. Landfield is "misstating" and appears to be indulging in what appears to be a fear-mongering activity to push an agenda.
Whatever, if an up-to-date driver's license is required for Alaskans to drive the highways and byways of our state legally, someone from another state or nation should likewise have a valid, up-to-date license as well.
Mr. Landfield's editorial notwithstanding, my HB1 bill is an easy-to-read, easy-to-comprehend, one-paragraph, simple piece of commonsense legislation. It increases good business practices at our DMV. It's good for our state and needs a "Yes" vote on the Senate floor. Your support is respectfully requested.
Rep. Bob Lynn is a member of the Alaska House of Representatives, representing District 23 in South Anchorage. He has served in the Legislature since 2003, and is Chair of the House State Affairs Committee and Vice-Chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.