GSA set to issue HSPD-12 cards

The General Services Administration’s Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 Managed Service Office (MSO) plans to open seven card enrollment stations at six agencies in the Washington area by Aug. 10. A week later, GSA is scheduled to add seven more stations at four agencies in the area. And by Aug. 24, the agency plans to have another eight enrollment stations, including some in Idaho, New Mexico and South Carolina. These activities will begin the office’s official rollout of HSPD-12 smart identification cards. Earlier this week GSA posted its schedule and other information on a new Web site, FedIDCard.gov. However, all these plans are based on GSA winning the protest of the $66.4 million MSO contract to EDS that two unsuccessful bidders, XTec and Computer Literacy World, filed in May. The Government Accountability Office is scheduled to issue a decision on the protest Aug. 9. Under the MSO contract, EDS must provide 200 fixed-enrollment stations and 25 mobile stations to be deployed nationwide to meet the administration’s October 2008 deadline to issue cards. The mobile stations will move eight times in the first year to support 200 additional government locations. GSA officials recently said they expect to issue 550,000 smart identification cards for employees and contractors in the next 14 months. GSA also wants EDS to set up 100 enrollment stations with staffing, 100 without and eight mobile stations without staffing in the first year. In a recent presentation posted on the new Web site, Mike Butler, GSA’s MSO program manager, said EDS met initial functionality requirements and completed the card topology design. The new Web site also details the HSPD-12 program, the MSO’s milestones for the next 14 months, card pricing information and other topics that could be helpful to agency officials. GSA eventually will post a running total of the number of cards it has issued and where the enrollment stations are operating.