Except such a federal ID already exists: the Passport Card. Make it free to obtain and mandatory to use.

Passport card can be revoked over fairly small amounts of late child support which applies to a surprisingly large portion of America, particularly historically oppressed minorities. It would be quite foolish to rely on that for identification if you have children as a simple divorce could put you in instant arrears and cause you to lose your ID.

	▲	aboardRat4 32 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		>Passport card can be revoked over fairly small amounts of late child support This is clearly ridiculous and not in any way connected to the reason passports exist. It's just purely bureaucratic tyranny. Even the stated goal of "preventing people from running away to other countries" doesn't work, because the USA doesn't have border service check the passport _on leaving_ the country.