TSA picks Maximus for ID card testing

Maximus Inc. has been chosen by the Transportation Security Administration to develop technologies leading to a national Transportation Workers Identification Credential card for workers needing unescorted access to secure transportation areas.

The five-month award, announced April 23 by TSA Administrator James Loy, is worth $3.8 million. When fully implemented, the ID card program will establish credentials for more than 12 million transportation workers.

"On Sept. 11, the terrorists used our own aviation system against us, which caused a catastrophic loss to lives and to the transportation system and to our national economy," Loy said. The ID card program "is being designed to plug the holes" in access that may still exist at transportation facilities, he said.

Maximus will test and evaluate different types of technologies at facilities of various modes of transportation. The pilot sites include the mid-Atlantic region (Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) and the Los Angeles/Long Beach area in California.

Maximus will work with several subcontractors, including EDS Corp., Plano, Texas; ActivCard Corp., Fremont, Calif.; Data Trac/SEI Technology Inc., Harrisonburg, Va.; Information Spectrum Inc., Annandale, Va., the acquisition of which was announced April 23 by Anteon International Inc., Fairfax, Va.; and ActCom Inc., Virginia Beach, Va.