SEWP winners and cyber legislation

SEWP awards contracts for fifth iteration

Almost 100 suppliers have been given final awards under NASA's Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement V contract.

SEWP announced 84 companies in two of four of the Government Wide Acquisition Contract's (GWAC) categories as part of the final award. The contract had been delayed in October after protests from vendors.

On March 25, SEWP posted lists on its website that includes 36 suppliers of Group A for systems/servers and computer-based systems, and 48 for the Group D category for networking, security, video and conferencing.

Each contract will have a 10-year effective ordering period, including a five-year base period from May 1 to April 31, 2020, and one five-year option to extend the period of performance through April 30, 2025, according to a SEWP statement. The contracts are firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, with a $25 minimum per order of supplies or services, and a per contract maximum of $20 billion.

The announcement comes after the contract's initial delay last fall. SEWP V contracts could not move forward until the protests were resolved. NASA officials wanted federal agencies to have access to SEWP V beginning in November 2014, but in October extended SEWP IV for an additional six months.

SEWP Program Manager Joanne Woytek told FCW in a March 16 interview those conflicts had been resolved and added that SEWP V is "well on track" to launch by the agency's May 1 target.

House Intel panel approves cyber bill

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on March 26 approved legislation that would grant private companies certain liability protections to encourage the reporting of computer network breaches to designated civilian agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security and the Treasury.

The bill, which was approved by voice vote, would authorize companies to share threat information with each other. A privacy provision would require both participating companies and government recipients of information to screen cyber threat indicators for personally identifiable information not directly related to a cyber threat. Private network operators would be allowed to defend their networks from attacks, but the measure specifically would not authorize "hacking back" against adversaries. The bill also would authorize the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center proposed by the Obama administration as a clearinghouse for cyber activities within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

"This bill will help defend U.S. networks against a wide array of cybercriminals who are becoming more active and more threatening every day. It's a bipartisan approach with strong privacy protections that will have a deep impact on this growing problem," said committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

There appears to be increased momentum behind efforts to pass a cybersecurity bill that gives companies more of an incentive to share information with government, while carving out some privacy protections for the data that is shared with government. The House bill tracks with a measure the Senate Intelligence Committee approved with a single dissenting vote. The House Homeland Security Committee is also preparing a bill that would establish the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center as the hub for sharing information on cyber threats, both from industry to government and from government to industry.