Another Major DHS Contract Is Being Recompeted Through GSA

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is about to release the solicitation for its up to $100 million Enterprise Gateway and Integration Services, or EGIS, contract, but the agency isn’t planning for a full and open competition.

USCIS intends to award the major modernization contract to vendors with offerings on the General Services Administration’s IT Schedule 70. A presolicitation notice posted on the Homeland Security Department’s acquisition forecast portal confirmed the agency is looking to GSA for this contract and announced a Feb. 8 release date for the request for proposals.

USCIS procurement officials had been considering a shift in acquisition strategy ahead of the presolicitation announcement. Officials with the Office of Information Technology held an industry day with Schedule 70 holders in November to talk about this opportunity and others where USCIS is considering using GSA for its acquisition approach. Along with the EGIS contract, officials talked about records management—including biometrics—digital innovation programs and investigations case management systems.

The new EGIS vehicle replaces what was to be the third generation of the Business Enterprise Service Technologies, or BEST, contract. The main focus will be modernizing the enterprise service bus, or ESB, infrastructure that enables information sharing across the agency. Vendors will also be tapped to upgrade and maintain legacy systems and help design, develop and deploy a new electronic case processing system.

The move to Schedule 70, rather than a full and open competition for a unique vehicle, mirrors that of other government agencies in the last year. In October, three agencies shifted the procurement strategy on multibillion contracts from full and open competitions to buying off GSA’s IT Schedule 70: the FBI’s $5 billion IT Supplies and Support Services, or ITSSS; the Air Force’s $5.5 billion replacement for Network-Centric Solutions 2, or NETCENTS-2, which will be called Second Generation Information Technology, or 2GIT; and the Pentagon’s Defense Enterprise Office Solutions, or DEOS, contract.

Even Homeland Security is looking more toward shared acquisition services, as the department moved to governmentwide acquisition vehicles, or GWACs, for the next generation of the Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading-Edge Solutions, or EAGLE, contract vehicle.

USCIS expects to announce awards on EGIS in the third quarter of the fiscal year.