No break for agencies on ID card deadline

Agencies will not get a break on an Oct. 27 deadline for issuing new wireless chip identity cards to employees and contractors, federal officials said Tuesday. But not every regional office will be required to issue cards to its employees, if agencies agree to procure cards through cooperative agreements with other agencies.

In an interview last week with Government Executive, John Sindelar, acting head of the General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy and a member of the governmentwide identity card executive steering committee, said that agencies agreeing to procure cards through cooperative arrangements with other agencies "may not be, by Oct. 27, in a city or an agency" that issues cards by the deadline.

But federal officials stressed Monday that entire agencies will not be exempt from the deadline. In fact, every agency will have to issue at least one new wireless chip identity badge by Oct. 27. But under a policy to be issued by the executive steering committee, not every office branch must supply employees with the credential by that date.

The steering committee is seeking agencies to volunteer as service providers to other agencies in procuring the cards. Among the possibilities is the Interior Department's National Business Center. The steering committee also has tentatively identified three cities where service center operations might set up shop to produce credentials for regional offices: Seattle, New York and Baltimore.

Some agencies say they are likely to miss the Oct. 27 deadline. "There's still a lot of unanswered questions," said one agency chief financial officer who requested anonymity. "You're asking me to answer questions about a program that hasn't even been defined yet."

The identity cards are required under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, signed by President Bush in August 2004. The badges will be used for physical entry into buildings and possibly for access to computer systems.

The Office of Management and Budget has told agencies to use existing budgets to cover the costs of HSPD 12 compliance. Another agency CFO, also requesting anonymity, said that while the agency has an identity system that is obsolete and needs replacing, "On our list of priorities, the first thing we want to do is make sure we're paying all the employees."

That agency likely will make cuts to its travel and information technology budgets to accommodate HSPD 12 requirements, the official said. Other possible areas of cuts include overhead accounts for copiers and delivery services, although "We've pretty much squeezed down those as much as we can over the past three or four years," the official added.

Matters could get more complicated with the approaching summer deadline for getting orders for new acquisitions to agency procurement offices. OMB policy requires agencies to buy HSPD 12 equipment from a list of approved vendors compiled by GSA, but GSA officials say the earliest they will have the list completed is around the end of June.

That's around the time agencies begin sweeping programs for unspent money, another agency official said. Existing or postponed projects can always use more money, so if agency budget shops see unobligated money, their impulse is to send it someplace where agencies can ensure it will be spent, rather than lose the money to the Treasury Department at the end of the fiscal year, the official said.

"We're entering into a fourth-quarter and we don't yet have a list of the approved products, and we're told to tie in with these shared services, which don't exist yet," the official said.