News briefs

The top technology business opportunitiesin the federal government in fiscal 2008 couldbring $123 billion into the coffers of contractors,market research firm Input said.The firm's analysis of the top 20 opportunitiesyielded a combined value of $119 billion infull-and-open competition. Another $4.4 billioncomes from Input's assessment of the top10 small-business set asides.The Homeland Security Department is payingbillions to professional services contractorsto do tasks similar to work usually reserved forgovernment employees, a GovernmentAccountability Office report said.The agency followed nine contractsand found they didn't follow federalguidance for assessing and addressingrisk in letting contractors supportinherently governmentaltasks such as preparing budgets,developing policies andregulations, and coordinatingintelligence, GAO said.The long-delayedTransportation WorkerIdentification Credential programbegan enrollments inOctober at one port and willadd 11 more ports this monthand will test card readers atfive other ports, a HomelandSecurity Department officialtold Congress.But TWIC is still failing onseveral fronts, including underestimatinghow many workers needthe ID cards and dragging its feet ondeploying readers for the cards, saidRep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and theGeneral Services Administration are sparringagain over the Sun Microsystems Inc. contractingcontroversy.Sun let its schedules contract expire lastmonth, setting off investigations by Grassley'sstaff that he said "uncovered a disturbing chainof circumstances at GSA."His concern, he said, is whether the Sun casereflects deeper problems with how the governmentnegotiates and manages contracts, leadingto contracts that benefit vendors at theexpense of taxpayers.Four months after lawmakers expected thefirst phase of the multiyear, multibillion-dollarSBInet for securing the border to be operational,guards along the U.S. border withMexico have yet to begin using it.Angered by the delays, which stem fromdifficulties that lead contractor Boeing Co.has had integrating software, lawmakerslashed out at Boeing officials at a joint hearingOct. 24.President Bush opposes the SmallBusiness Contracting ProgramImprovements Act to update contractingprograms for small-business contractorsbecause some provisions raise constitutionalconcerns.For example, the bill would letagencies limit competition forsome contracts to female businessowners in male-dominatedindustries.The administration said atightly controlled basis is neededto build the case for tryingto determine that women areunderrepresented in a particularfield.Lawmakers on the HouseScience and TechnologyCommittee are backing a billto increase funding forunmanned aerial vehicles, tunneldetection devices and anticounterfeitingtechnologies foruse in border security.It also directs the HomelandSecurity Department to plan andcoordinate with the Federal AviationAdministration for operation of UAVsalong the borders.After about 15 years of efforts to reform federalprocurement through different types ofcontracts and different ways of thinking aboutacquisition, the government has not made asmuch progress as advocates of change wouldlike, experts said at the recent ExecutiveLeadership Conference."Before we can think outside the box, weneed to know what's in the box," said Adm.Dick Ginman, deputy director ofdefense acquisition policy at the DefenseDepartment.The Homeland Security Department istrying to quash criticism of its slow developmentof an exit piece to the U.S. Visitorand Immigrant Status Indicator Technologyprogram.Robert Mocny, US-VISIT director, said theagency has decided a piece of the exit programwill require airlines to collect biometric dataof visitors leaving the country when theycheck in at the airport. Mocny said DHS willissue a notice of proposed rulemaking in theFederal Register by January 2008, detailingthe program.The House passed the Tax CollectionResponsibility Act of 2007, which would delayuntil 2012 a mandate to government buyers towithhold part of their payments to contractors.Widely opposed by contractors, the mandateis meant to give government a way to collecttaxes on unreported revenues.Federal information technology spendingin the next five years will keep growing,although more slowly than during the pastfive, according to a Government Electronicsand Information Technology Associationstudy.GEIA predicts that federal IT budgets willincrease by an average of 1.4 percent per yearfrom fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2013 ? downfrom a compound annual growth rate of 5.7percent during the past five years.Growth will be slowed by changes inspending priorities and Iraq policy afterthe 2008 presidential election, the studypredicted.The Justice Department, in a move to moreaggressively prosecute people illegally exportingU.S. technologies, is creating task forces inregions with a high concentration of high-techcompanies.The Counter-Proliferation Task Forces willbe established in a number of U.S. attorneys'offices nationwide. They are intended toimprove coordination among federal agenciesinvolved in export control and to strengthenrelationships and information sharing withaffected industries.Despite improvements, the HomelandSecurity Department still falls short in protectingits critical information technologysystems and data, an inspector generalreport states.Systems are accredited as secure withoutkey documents or information, informationsecurity weaknesses have no remediationplans, system weaknesses aren't monitoredand quickly resolved, and baselinesecurity configurations aren't uniformlyapplied to all systems, the report states.New York will become the fourth state toimplement a hybrid identification cardthat may be used for border crossings andas a driver's license complying withupcoming Real ID Act regulations,Homeland Security Secretary MichaelChertoff and Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced.Arizona, Vermont and Washington areworking on similar hybrid ID cards.Old and new companies have raided theranks of industry's top executives to leadtheir federal services divisions.Perot Systems Corp. tapped Eugene"Lee" Carrick, formerly of NorthropGrumman Corp., to be an executive vicepresident at Perot Systems GovernmentServices Inc., in Fairfax, Va.Canadian server virtualization providerLiquid Computing Inc. is making its pushinto the U.S. federal market by choosinggovernment contracting veteran TomKreidler, formerly of Sun MicrosystemsInc., to be president of new subsidiaryLiquid Computing Federal Inc., ofWashington.The subsidiary's board boasts membersJames Muldoon, an Air Force veteran andchief executive officer at Metcor Inc., andDendy Young, former chairman and CEOat GTSI Corp. and now managing partnerat McLean Capital LLC.To succeed in the defense and IT sectors,companies must act boldly in makinginvestments, diversify as much as possibleand find ways to make themselves standout from the pack, financial experts said atthe Government Electronics andInformation Technology Association forum.Businesses should stick to their corecapabilities but also take some intellectualrisks to expand their businesses andfamiliarize government and taxpayerswith their products and services, thespeakers said.