House Democrat Rep. Bill Foster (Ill.) is part of three separate bills that push digital identification on Americans through legislation.
The Illinois congressman first announced the Improving Digital Identity Act in September 2020, stating on Twitter then that “it’s time the United States catches up with the developed world on digital identity technology.”
Citing the benefits of a “bipartisan” bill, Foster said it had become “vitally important to ramp up safeguards to protect against identity theft and fraud ” so that businesses and consumers could have confidence in their online transactions.
In a bipartisan manner, members of Congress appear to be collecting evidence to bolster their argument for why digital identification should be required.
Apparently, this can only be done through digital ID.
Foster has been relentless about this bill, reintroducing it in 2021 and again in 2024, Reclaim the Net reported.
According to Foster’s website, the bill asks for the creation of a Digital Identity Task Force made up of federal, state, and local representatives. The task force would develop methods for government agencies to “validate” and “protect” the identities of individuals online, including “tools for verification.”
This, of course, means government-issued digital IDs and government-operated verification programs.
The task force would also determine whether a “fee-based model” for verification programs would be required.
The bill, H.R.4258, comes with an estimated $50 million price tag over five years to develop the digital ID. It was originally co-sponsored by 10 Democrats and three Republicans, including Georgia’s Barry Loudermilk (R), Rhode Island’s James Langevin (D), and New York Rep. John Katko (R).
In September 2024, Foster introduced another digital ID bill to “establish a Government-wide approach to improving digital identity, and for other purposes.”
The text for H.R. 9783 had yet to be submitted at the time of this publication.
In June 2024, Foster co-sponsored Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins’ bill on the same topic.
H.R. 8658, the Emerging Digital Identity Ecosystem Report Act of 2024, asked for a report from TSA on “digital identity ecosystems.”
The report will include the benefits and risks of digital identities as they relate to homeland security in the United States.
Bipartisanly, members of Congress appear to be collecting evidence to bolster their argument for requiring digital identification. The most popular reasons congressmen have given in their bill texts so far are tightening national security, securing online transactions, and preventing identity theft.
Digital ID has long been a topic of discussion at the World Economic Forum, the yearly event where society’s elites meet to decide which policy proposals to pursue in their jurisdictions.
Since at least 2020, the WEF has advocated for a digital ID system to help society’s most vulnerable members.
“A digital ID system allowed Chile rapidly to pre-enroll millions of new beneficiaries in social programs,” the organization wrote.
In 2023, the WEF said it was “difficult or impossible” for the roughly 850 million people who don’t have ID to “fully engage with society.” This, according to the WEF, showcases a perfect reason to implement a cost-efficient, paperless ID system.
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