Funding delays stall expansion of online identification

A federal initiative designed to verify the identity of citizens doing business with the government over the Internet is facing funding delays, according to Bush administration officials.

The e-authentication project, one of President Bush's 24 initiatives to put more government services online, seeks to allow individuals to garner identification credentials to sign and transmit documents and transact other business online with government agencies. The General Services Administration (GSA) and White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are spearheading the project.

But Adrian Fish, GSA's deputy project manager, said at an E-Gov conference on Tuesday that officials might miss a target for launching the gateway because of funding issues. "Our milestone had been September of this year. ... I don't think we're going to make it now," she said.

For now, the e-authentication portal is working on an interim basis under a deal with the technology research firm Mitretek, Fish said, and funding woes have forced the agency to delay its bid to expand the portal. "What we have now is an interim gateway that does work," she said. "It can continue to do business, but it's not really where we want to be."

Still, Fish said GSA is making progress and is working with e-authentication providers to create a "credential consortium" that eventually will certify the firms to offer digital certificates and other third-party credentials for verification at the gateway. GSA also is working with industry communities to see if they can leverage private-sector efforts to issue digital certificates and other Web-based verification credentials, he said.

"We have just joined the Liberty Alliance and are using that body to drive to an open standard" for the software in verification products, Fish said. The alliance is a private-sector group of firms trying to craft a standard for authenticating people's IDs online.

Despite the delays with the government's e-authentication initiative, she said GSA is "getting a lot of interest" from various agencies about becoming part of it.

Officials with other e-government projects, such as the e-grant program, are working with GSA and the e-authentication team to become eligible to issue authentication credentials for citizens applying for federal grants online.