Labor issues RFP for ID card processing

The Labor Department has formally issued a solicitation seeking a vendor to provide Personal Identity Verification cards to agency employees and contractors.

In a notice published yesterday, Labor also said it will hold a bidders' conference June 9 at its Washington headquarters.

The solicitation comes as agencies scramble to meet the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 deadline to begin issuing PIV cards by Oct. 27.

Labor noted that the mandate is unfunded and said it will take a phased approach to meeting the requirements.

In particular, it will focus on PIV card development and on registration for new employees and contractors at its Washington locations this year, and then complete issuance for all current employees by October 2008.

The Office of Management and Budget's HSPD-12 Executive Steering Committee is overseeing compliance with the directive and is currently devising a plan for agencies to share the cost of registering employees and printing the cards.

The General Services Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology are testing HSPD-12 related products, and NIST has signed off on only two products so far. More approvals are expected this month, the solicitation said.

Rob Thormeyer is a staff writer for Washington Technology's sister publication, Government Computer News.