Eagle II and the big "so what"

Imagine my excitement when I got word from a source Monday that the Homeland Security Department was about to make a major announcement about Eagle II large business awards.

I started clearing the decks and figuring out what I’d do if the news broke after 5. My wife would have to take care of the kids solo for a couple hours while I wrote the story, got edited and posted to the website. Then, I’d have to rebuild the morning newsletter and retest it. It would need to be rescheduled as well.

So, it was a little deflating when I got the word that DHS’ big announcement was that it was going to re-evaluate all the bids for the unrestricted portion of functional category 1 for service delivery.

What? Didn’t everyone already know that in December, when the Government Accountability Office dismissed 25 protests because DHS said it was taking a corrective action?

The presumption then was that DHS was going to re-evaluate bids. Now, they’ve made that official, but as my source said, “To me this looks like a big, ‘So what?”’

My source and I were both expecting something more, especially since DHS recently prevailed in a couple Eagle II-related protests.

It also makes me wonder what DHS has been doing since December.

Anyway, in the notice to bidders, DHS says that their submitted proposals will be used for the re-evaluation, “hence no revisions to your proposal are requested and none will be entertained at this time.”

The evaluation criteria also are the same.

DHS also is requiring bidders to confirm that their proposals are still valid through March 31. The confirmation is due March 14.

So, we’re not exactly back to square one, but it looks like the delays for Eagle II will continue.