Larry Pratt, executive director of Springfield, Va.-based Gun Owners of America, says the federal legislation "hands an open-ended blank check" to the government to collect information about people.

States can opt out of the requirements, but the bill would withhold money from states for driver's license improvements if they do.

The federal bill's sponsor, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., told colleagues that the minimum standards already are met by most states and are intended to prod those whose lax licensing checks are "a magnet for foreign terrorists, criminals, home grown identity thieves and illegal aliens."

The Sept. 11 commission urged Congress last year to make it harder for people to get a driver's license, noting that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers fraudulently obtained licenses that allowed them to board commercial flights.

Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform, played down the privacy concerns and said the bill is written in such a way as to prevent abuse. He said national driver's license standards are indispensable to curbing illegal immigration.

"No one has a legitimate privacy question over whether someone is legal or not. That ought to be verifiable," he said.

But in Montana, members of the state House are refusing to cede their driver's license authority to Washington. Last week, they approved a bill that prohibits the adoption of federal driver's license standards for noncommercial licenses.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., was one of eight Republicans who voted against the bill.

"In our efforts to protect our homeland and increase our border security we must move forward with solid measures. At the same time, our individual civil rights are nonnegotiable," Pombo said in a statement. "The establishment of a national ID card, I believe, has the possibility of violating those rights."

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On the Net:

Information on the bill, H.R. 418, can be found at thomas.loc.gov