Acquisition councils propose FAR changes to comply with HSPD-12

Federal procurement officials are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation to specify how agencies should procure services in order to meet Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 requirements.

In a recent notice, the Civilian Agency Acquisition and the Defense Acquisition councils said the modifications require agencies to purchase personal identity verification products and services compliant with Federal Information Processing Standard 201-1.

The proposed amendments also require the agencies to purchase interoperable products, as outlined under HSPD-12.

HSPD-12 directs agencies to issue PIV cards for physical and logical access to federal assets to all employees and contractors. Agencies must begin issuing the cards by Oct. 27.

In the FAR amendment, the acquisition councils said that any contract that requires vendors to have access to these assets must contain a clause that ensures the contractor complies with HSPD-12.

Also, agencies must include in their solicitations how they are implementing HSPD-12 if they are soliciting services that require vendor access to federal information systems, the notice said.

Comments on the proposed changes are due Oct. 23.

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