DHS may not renew Eagle 2

I’ve been around long enough to have seen the ups and downs of the General Services Administration. In its darkest days, buyers fled the agency’s vehicles, and there was talk about whether there really was a need for GSA.

Many agencies set up their own vehicles for basic IT products and services rather than turn to GSA.

But you don’t hear much of that kind of talk anymore. The agency is riding high. The two Alliant contracts are raking in task orders. The OASIS professional services vehicle has been picked as a contract of choice by the Air Force and Army. Other agencies are likely to sign on as well.

And now some other agencies – namely the Homeland Security Department – are thinking about not renewing their own IT contracts in favor of using GSA vehicles.

Speaking at the Montgomery County, Md., Chamber of Commerce GovConNet event, Jaclyn Smyth, associate direction of the DHS Strategic Sourcing Office, said that DHS may not renew the $22 billion Eagle 2 contract when it is time for a third iteration.

“There has been no final decision,” she said, but it will be difficult to justify to the Office of Management and Budget why DHS needs its own IT hardware and services contracts.

She said she’ll be tracking GSA’s development of Alliant 2 and might try to inject some DHS requirements into that vehicle if necessary.

OMB is pushing agencies to reduce redundant contracts, which should lower costs and make agencies more efficient.

“What we might do is break out some niche requirements in a DHS-specific contract,” Smyth said.

Agency contracts will be more mission focused to meet the unique needs of that particular agency, she said.

The Eagle 2 contract doesn’t expire until about 2020, so “it is too early to tell” what DHS will ultimately do, Smyth said.