SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois House joined a national push Thursday in urging Congress to repeal a federal driver's license law.

The federal Real ID Act would require all U.S. citizens who want to board a plane or enter a federal building to have to have a nationally standardized identification card by 2013. States would have to get the program going by May 2008.

States across the country have approved non-binding resolutions to rebuke the act, many saying that Congress didn't offer enough money to help states run the program.

On the House floor Thursday, state Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Chicago, said Real ID would create a "bureaucratic nightmare." Opponents also have argued the national database of personal information that would accompany a standardized ID card would be an invasion of privacy and target for identity theft.

The measure was approved without dissent.

Supporters of the act, though, say the program could help prevent the kind of fraud that leads to terrorism.

"We need to accept we are living in an age of terrorism," said Neil Berro of the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License. His group was formed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. "It's called insurance."

The General Assembly's move came on the same day that Berro was in Springfield meeting with officials at the Secretary of State's office to discuss the state's progress on complying with the mandate. Jesse White's office said they weren't involved with Thursday's resolution.

Federal rules that will guide the Real ID program have yet to be finalized, even though Illinois will have to begin paying for it in its next budget.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's proposed spending plan doesn't include the $22 million Secretary of State Jesse White has said he needs to start paying for it.

Blagojevich budget spokesman Justin DeJong said the budget could evolve.

"This is something we continue to look at," he said.

The General Assembly's action Thursday doesn't affect how the state would implement the act because the resolution doesn't carry legal weight. It was passed shortly after a resolution to honor Oprah Winfrey, and shortly before another urging that Chicago Cubs legend Ron Santo be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Montana and Washington state lawmakers, though, said this week they won't participate in the Real ID act's requirements - period. How residents there would get on planes is unclear.

Haupt says White wants to implement the act somehow and not cause residents hardship.