mr. chairman , i rise today in support of h.r. 418 , the real id act .  i supported the intelligence reform and terrorism prevention act last december .  that legislation helped to streamline the intelligence community and tightened some asylum rules that allowed potential terrorists to remain in our country .  that was a good bill , but it did not go far enough .  so i am pleased that the house is debating h.r. 418 -- a bill that i believe will continue to strengthen our borders , further improve identification standards , and close even more asylum loopholes .  we know that mohamed atta and his gang of terrorists exploited weak identification rules , and , as stated in the 9/11 commission report , `` all but one of the 9/11 hijackers acquired some form of identification document , some by fraud. '' h.r. 418 will require that federal agencies only accept licenses and state-issued id cards when states have determined that the holder is lawfully present in the country .  the bill will also require that temporary visitors to our country receive only temporary identification , and that this identification expire when the terms of the visit expire .  mr. chairman , this only makes sense .  i am also pleased that this bill further reforms our asylum system , a system that has unfortunately been ripe for corruption for years .  we are also addressing the san diego border fence issue and will ensure the expeditious completion of the border fence .  further , the bill makes aliens deportable for terrorism-related offenses .  incredibly , current law provided that not all terrorism-related grounds for keeping an alien out of the country are also grounds for deportion .  this bill closes that loophole .  the simple fact is that we need to secure our borders .  today 's bill is another step toward this effort and i believe it will make our country safer .  i urge my colleagues to support the real id act .  