The final day of hearings into the Department of Revenue's now-defunct policy of scanning and storing documents of driver's license applicants featured the agency's former director answering questions under oath.
Alana Barragan-Scott told the House Bipartisan Investigative Committee on Privacy Protection that during her tenure, the department sought to safeguard driver's licenses from fraud and were not trying to skirt a 2009 state law barring compliance with the federal Real ID Act.
"I simply can't read the bill as prohibiting Missouri, the Missouri Dept. of Revenue, from pursuing security measures for any reason, regardless of where they come from," Barragan-Scott said. "I simply can’t."
Committee member and Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russell Oliver disagreed.
"To me, this issue is becoming less about Real ID and more about a government agency doing whatever the hell they wanted to do," Oliver said.
Barragan-Scott left the Department of Revenue shortly after scanning and storing of applicants' documents began in order to become an administrative law judge for Democratic Governor Jay Nixon. He recently signed a bill into law that ended the policy.
Meanwhile, committee chairman Stanley Cox, a Republican from Sedalia, says he may schedule one or two more hearings later this summer.
