The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) this month issued a Request for Information (RFI) as part of stakeholder outreach to help the agency develop a five-year technology investment plan mandated by Congress last year.
TSA said its Office of Security Capabilities, which is led by Jill Vaughn, will lead development of the investment plan, “which will require broad stakeholder engagement to identify and analyze transportation security risks and capability gaps for which future acquisition activities will be planned to address.”
Release of the RFI follows an acquisition reform industry forum held early in February that was hosted by TSA, the Washington Homeland Security Roundtable, and the Security Manufacturers Coalition. That forum was designed to open a dialogue between TSA and industry on a new acquisition reform frame work for the agency, with a focus on the technology investment plan.
The five-year investment plan was called for in bipartisan legislation approved by Congress and signed by President Obama in December. In addition to directing TSA to develop the multi-year investment plan, The Transportation Security Acquisition Reform Act also requires the agency to follow Department of Homeland Security policies to determine whether an acquisition is justified and establish baseline acquisition requirements including estimated lifecycle costs, schedule and performance milestones for the duration of a project.
TSA’s RFI includes a number of questions to stakeholders such as expected trends in domestic and international air travel in the next five years, opportunities for public-private partnerships to aid in the acquisition of security technology, potential process improvements to streamline the agency’s security acquisitions and provide greater predictability, and more.
TSA said it may hold a technical information exchange meeting with vendors before or after reviewing the RFI responses. The meeting would be with vendors that TSA wants more information from.
Responses are due by March 6. TSA said that OSC’s program support contractor, Deloitte, will be providing advisory services to review responses to the RFI.
TSA, like other DHS agencies, has been a frequent target of criticism by members of Congress for sloppy acquisition practices. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in December that the new legislation ensures “that private industry has a seat at the table and that TSA does not purchase new technologies without proper planning, oversight and accountability.”