Missouri Department of Revenue delivers documents on driver's licenses procedures

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Department of Revenue complied Tuesday with a Senate subpoena and delivered thousands of documents relating to new driver's license procedures, but the chamber's leaders were critical of the department's delivery method.

The Republican-led Senate requested documents about concerns license applicants' personal documents scanned into a state computer system are shared with the federal government or a private company. Senior revenue department officials have denied they are sharing copies of personal documents, such as concealed weapons endorsements and birth certificates.

The subpoenaed documents were delivered to Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, roughly an hour before the 4 p.m. Tuesday subpoena deadline. He received 16 large boxes full of paper documents. Additional boxes have been set aside at the department's office across the street from the Capitol for Schaefer to consult.

"Where a simple CD would do, we are going back to the 20th century and they've dropped off reams of documents," Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, said.

The Senate's subpoena did not specify how the documents should be delivered or formatted. Schaefer and his staff are going through thousands of internal department emails and other documents related to the new license procedures.

"They certainly aren't making it easy to find what they know is the information we are looking for," he said.

Senators asked the department for information on whether the state is implementing federal standards for verifying a license applicant's identity and citizenship, known as Real ID. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security website lists Missouri as one of 34 states that has submitted a Real ID "package and status update," but not among the states that have fully implemented the program. A 2009 state law prevents the Revenue Department from implementing Real ID.