News briefs

Public and private spending on biometricstechnologies will more than double to$7.3 billion globally by 2013, up from$3 billion in 2008, according to London-basedABI Research.Fingerprints will continue to dominate,but there also is growth in face, iris, handand speech recognition systems, ABI said.Disabled vets to benefit from billThe House has passed a bill that wouldrequire a company or agency working onbehalf of the Veterans Affairs Departmentto give preference when making purchasesto small businesses owned by service-disabledveterans.The Improving Veterans' Opportunitiesin Education and Business Act (H.R. 6221)would mandate that VA include provisionsin its contracts and agreements that requirethe contractor to meet VA's annual small-businesscontracting goals for veterans.The General Services Administration'sFederal Acquisition Service has successfullycombined the Federal Technology Serviceand the Federal Supply Service but nowmust deal with older computer systems, aninspector general's report said.Ed O'Hare, FAS's chief information officer,must integrate systems from the formerFTS and FSS. Seventeen major systems and47 non-major systems are left over fromthe two services.The Veterans Affairs Department proposedrevising its acquisition regulations to boostfederal dollars going to businesses ownedby military veterans.The proposal would let VA contractingofficers restrict competitions for contractsto small businesses owned by veterans. Italso would let them award sole-source contractsto those companies.The Transportation Security Administrationhas changed course on its $2 billionInformation Technology InfrastructureProgram contract and will let EDS Corp.,Northrop Grumman Corp. and UnisysCorp. compete for the lucrative contract.Northrop Grumman and Unisys filedprotests with the GovernmentAccountability Office and the FederalAviation Administration, claiming that theyshould not have been eliminated by TSAduring a down-select process.The Federal Emergency ManagementAgency suspended a procurement for theupcoming Top Officials 5 national disasterdrill to investigate allegations of improprietiesin the contracting process, FEMAofficials said.Lawmakers said a contractor that apparentlywrote parts of FEMA's request forproposals for the TopOff 5 contract mightalso be a bidder on the contract. If so, thatwould present an unfair competitiveadvantage.Science Applications InternationalCorp. withdrew its bid on the TopOff 5contract and has put several employees onadministrative leave while it reviews theallegations.The Government Accountability Office saidit does not have the authority to hear aprotest by Avue Technologies Corp. over alarge Transportation SecurityAdministration contract awarded toLockheed Martin Corp. in early July.GAO noted that TSA procurements weresubject to the Federal AviationAdministration's acquisition managementsystem until Congress passed the 2008Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008,which was enacted Dec. 26, 2007.Attending the LandWarNet 2008 conferencevia videoconference, Army Chief ofStaff Gen. George Casey said only a 21stcenturyArmy can handle new situationalchallenges.Such an Army must evolve to tackle sixtrends: globalization, resource competition,proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,climate change, failed and failingstates, and demographic trends, Casey said.