Commerce taps more firms for IT contract

The Commerce Department is expected to make additional awards today under its estimated $1.5 billion governmentwide information technology services contract.

Earlier this month, Commerce picked 30 vendors to share a piece of the Commerce Information Technology Solutions (Commits) program, which is designed specifically for small businesses. That number is about to go up.

In a letter sent to vendors late last week, Tiffany Hixson, contracting officer for the Commits contract, said the department plans to award additional contracts because it is "in the best interest of the Commits program."

The list of apparent winners includes 28 vendors that were not chosen during the first round of awards a few weeks ago. However, in addition to the 28 are two companies already on Commits — Javis and American Technology Inc. Those companies will be awarded an additional contract in the information systems security area.

The road to Commits has been long. Commerce originally awarded 29 Commits contracts more than a year ago, but a series of protests and rulings by the Court of Federal Claims and the General Accounting Office forced the department to suspend the program. On June 29, the department told vendors that had originally bid on Commits to revise their prices and technical information and resubmit their proposals. The awards this month are in response to that.