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OMB optimistic about meeting HSPD-12 deadline

Agencies looking beyond deadline to use cards for physical access control

Federal News Network Staff

October 8, 2008 6:52 am

2 min read

By Jason Miller
Executive Editor
FederalNewsRadio

In the final 19 days before the deadline for agencies to issue secure identification cards, the Office of Management and Budget is confident every federal employee and every contractor will have a Homeland Security Presidential Directive -12 card.

Karen Evans, OMB’s administrator for e-government and information technology, says her office is tracking agency progress and conducting outreach to help overcome any remaining short term challenges.

In 2005, OMB set a deadline of Oct. 27 for agencies to issue cards to employees and contractors.

The latest government HSPD-12 progress report through June 30 shows that only a handful of agencies have made progress in issuing cards to employees and contractors. The 2007 fourth quarter progress report is not yet available.

And the General Services Administration’s HSPD-12 managed service office says through Oct. 6, it has activated 105,000 cards, and 297,000 employees have been sponsored by their agencies to obtain cards.

“All agencies have plans in place,” says Evans, who was speaking at the IT Association of America’s IDevent in Washington Tuesday. “The expectation is as of Nov. 1 that any new employee would receive a HSPD-12 card.”

She adds that agencies are looking beyond the deadline this month. Agencies have plans in place to use the cards for physical access control initially.

Evans says many agencies are waiting for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to finalize its guidance.

NIST issued a draft specification Sept. 10 that provides best practices for integrating the HSPD-12 card with the physical access control systems that authenticates cardholders in federal facilities.

“The policy framework is there and soon the infrastructure will be there too,” she says. “The implementation of HSPD-12 cards are not that hard because we have been planning for this.”

Evans says HSPD-12 cards can be used for many different things including digital signatures, high level trust relationships, emergency management credentials that are interoperable among state and local first responders and high security remote access log-on.

Evans adds that there are several longer term challenges that need to be addressed.

She says the CIO Council’s new Security and Identity Management Committee is helping to coordinate many of these challenges across government.

“Their focus is on leveraging the capabilities of these cards,” she says.

Evans adds that the Office of Personnel Management and the Chief Human Capital Officer’s Council are working together on ensuring human resource systems are the main source of information about employee roles and responsibilities.

This program also is expected to move into the next administration, she says.

“We are putting together the key next steps and next decisions that need to be made,” Evans says.

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On the Web:

FederalNewsRadio – HSPD-12 Deadline Reduced

FederalNewsRadio – GSA set for busy next 14 weeks

ID Management.gov – HSPD-12 agency-by-agency progress report

General Services Administration – HSPD-12 Managed Service Office