DHS' $10B commodity IT contract remains on pause
Photo by Samuel Corum / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
By
Ross Wilkers
The protests surrounding FirstSource III are one factor, but the bigger issue at-hand now is where this contract fits into the government's larger push to centralize civilian contracting.
The Homeland Security Department has asked for, and received, a new two-month pause in the court case surrounding its potential $10 billion small business IT contract being held up by 30 protests.
Nearly a dozen companies took their protests to the Court of Federal Claims in the fall after DHS did not select their bids for the FirstSource III contract.
DHS first chose a group of 30 IT value-added resellers for awards, but has yet to do the same for a second set focused on software providers.
The holdup in moving ahead is due mostly to how the original number of 11 protesters has almost tripled since the case started. DH Concepts Group, DH Technologies and Westwind Partners are the names of protestors under which the case has been consolidated.
But now the overall acquisition and procurement environment has changed for DHS, according to its granted motion for the stay filed Tuesday.
President Trump’s March 20 executive order directing the consolidation of the procurement of “common goods and services,” including IT, is almost certain to impact the future of FirstSource III.
The Trump administration is pushing for the General Services Administration to essentially be the central clearinghouse in procuring those goods and services for other civilian agencies.
DHS’ motion for the FirstSource III stay spells out the government’s intended timelines for making that happen.
By now (or within 60 days of Trump’s executive order), leaders at agencies and departments including DHS were due to submit plans to GSA for the latter to take on the bulk of their domestic procurement responsibilities.
Within 90 days of the executive order, GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian is due to provide the Office of Management and Budget a plan for the agency he leads to move ahead with centralizing civilian procurements there.
Also according to its motion, DHS also will not open up FirstSource III for delivery orders until at least March 2026.
That delay is to account for both the stay period, a decision on where the contract fits into the Trump administration’s procurement consolidation push, and time needed to resolve the protests.
DHS is due to update the court on where things stand by July 28, when the stay is slated to expire unless the judge extends it again.
The department uses FirstSource to acquire IT hardware, software and ancillary services from small business. FirstSource II opened for business in 2012 and logged approximately $6.2 in order volume to-date, according to GovTribe data.