This is essentially how my Estonian ID card works. The ID card is inserted into a USB smartcard reader and grants access to identity verification an thus access to services.
It's also how the entire US DoD does things so it's not as though the US doesn't have in-house expertise.
Why on Earth does everyone speaks about Estonian ID cards? Same ID-1 sized eID cards are now issued in many EU countries.
Estonia wasn't even the first, Belgium was.
Given that gp says “my” Estonian card, you can assume it’s because they have one and don’t have one of your country of choice.
They do because Estonia made the best use of them for their eGov, including for election voting.
But the American public is petrified of systems like that because of the leftovers of frontier settler culture and fear of communism. They're apparently far more comfortable with the similar but worse systems being set up by corporations.
Government is wasteful and could never run an efficient [Industry]. Instead, private companies that can be efficient should run [Industry]. They will be more efficient [and turn the surplus into private profits instead of public savings].