On April 29, members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Governmental Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia held a hearing titled "The Impact of Implementation: A Review of the REAL ID Act and the Western Hemisphere Initiative." Democrats and republicans alike took the opportunity to criticize the upcoming Real ID requirements, with some members renewing calls for the law to be repealed. The government estimates that the Real ID program will cost $10 billion to implement, with states responsible for $4 billion of the funding.

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), chairman of the subcommittee, said he was especially concerned with the multibillion-dollar cost to state governments to implement Real ID's requirements. Akaka joined others in voicing concerns about the mandate’s implications on privacy and civil liberties. He said, "The massive amounts of personal information that would be stored in state databases that are to be shared electronically with all other states, as well as the unencrypted data on the Real ID card itself, could provide one-stop shopping for identity thieves."

Akaka said he will continue to push for passage of S. 717, the Identification Security Enhancement Act, legislation he introduced last year. The bill is intended to replace Real ID with a negotiated rulemaking process that was proposed prior to Real ID’s passage in 2005 as part of an emergency Iraq war spending bill. The bill has support from republicans, including John Sununu (R-N.H.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and many state officials and civil liberties groups.

Sen. John Tester (D-Mont.) blasted the program, calling it "the worst kind of Washington, D.C. boondoggle." He voiced criticism for the fact that the administration is not requiring information encoded in Real ID cards bar codes to be encrypted, making citizens' personal information vulnerable. The new ID cards would not be required of every citizen until 2017, which Tester noted, is "16 years after the attack of Sept. 11."

Senators George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), the top republicans on the committee, were sharply critical of the steep cost of implementation and the lack of detailed security requirements for Real ID. 

Testifying before the committee was Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Baker insisted that the department has borne the brunt of the costs associated with implementing Real ID. He also said that the $10 billion figure was based on rough estimates from the states, and the actual costs could be much lower. Baker said the department has tried to be flexible by offering some states extensions.