Homeland scales back TWIC solicitation

The Homeland Security Department announced it has restructured a pending contract for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential by limiting the scope of the initial implementation contract to just the enrollment of eligible workers.

A previous presolicitation notice for the credentialing program, which was issued April 4, sought a single contractor to deploy Phase IV of the program for 850,000 maritime port workers.

The contract's scope was to include enrollment, help desk, operation and maintenance of the ID Management System, which is the centralized database for the TWIC, as well as future enhancements for the program, the notice said.

On April 19, the Transportation Security Administration cancelled that previous presolicitation notice for the TWIC. It also published a new notice stating it intends to hold a two-step competition for enrollment services for the TWIC.

The TSA said it would issue a qualification statement for interested contractors on April 21, with responses to be returned by April 28. The contractors deemed most qualified will receive a request for proposal solicitation for the credentialing program by May 22. No award date is mentioned.

Government sources say the TSA now may be seeking more than one vendor for implementation of the TWIC, rather than a single prime contractor.

The TWIC program includes biometrics, public key infrastructure and other IT to improve security for physical and logical access.

Two prototype technology evaluations were complete as of June 2005, and prototype testing will continue through June 2006.