<FONT SIZE=2>The White House has proposed a far-reaching policy change that would require small businesses to recertify annually their eligibility for some contracts reserved for small business. </FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington and the General Accounting Office are investigating whether large businesses are fraudulently pursuing -- and winning -- government contracts set aside for small businesses. </FONT>
Jim Flyzik, former senior adviser to homeland security director Tom Ridge, was named chairman of the Homeland Security Task Group of the Information Technology Association of America, officials of the Arlington, Va., organization announced today.
CACI International Inc. was awarded a $103 million prime contract to support Navy Enterprise Maintenance Automated Information System Data Center operations.
Savi Technology Inc. was awarded a three-year procurement contract by the Department of Defense, valued up to $90 million, for Radio Frequency Identification hardware and related software and services.
Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego has bought Quality Research Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., SAIC officials announced this week. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Soon, federal agency contracting officers will be able to call on the staff of the General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service for help with contracting for professional services, GSA Administrator Stephen Perry said Wednesday.
<FONT SIZE=2>Information technology services firms with significant work in the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security will be winners under the Bush administration's proposed $59.3 billion federal IT budget for fiscal 2004, industry executives and analysts said. </FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Government buyers and large federal contractors will look for small-business partners at events nationwide this year through a new Small Business Administration program, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington and Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto, Calif.</FONT>
Deirdre Lee, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, Wednesday put the department's contracting officers on notice that the General Accounting Office and Congress will be watching how they implement the requirements of Section 803 of the 2002 National Defense Authorization Act.
President Bush is making homeland security the top priority in his fiscal 2004 budget request to Congress, and promises intense scrutiny of how the funds are spent.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation councils issued a proposed rule Jan. 31 to help small businesses by amending the regulation in an attempt to curtail contract bundling. The proposed changes would implement Office of Management and Budget's recommendations for increasing federal contracting opportunities for small businesses by unbundling contracts where possible and mitigating the effects of bundling when it's necessary.
<FONT SIZE=1>	Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., was appointed chairman of the House Government Reform Committee. Davis had led the Government Reform subcommittee on technology and procurement policy. He succeeds Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who stepped down because of term limits. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has taken over the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., lost the chairmanship because the Senate lost its Democratic majority. Collins reportedly has said she wants to improve cybersecurity and maintain privacy while encouraging agency data sharing.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=1>The board of directors of a company that produces anthrax-detection sensors said last fall that it could not sell the technology to the U.S. Postal Service because its liability protection was too low.</FONT>
Agencies are making progress on key administration management goals such as e-government, financial management and competitive sourcing, but plenty of work still needs to be done, according to a new scorecard.
