The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) top procurement official this month advised its industry partners that the fledgling budget sequester could result in a variety of modifications and even cancellations to programs.
Nick Nayak, the department’s chief procurement officer, said in a March 5 letter to industry that the sequestration may result in fewer funds available for the purchase of supplies and services, as well as the government’s ability to administer contracts.
“Such reductions may result in certain planned procurements being canceled or reduced in scope and certain existing contracts being reduced in scope, terminated or partially terminated,” Nayak wrote.
So far it doesn’t appear that DHS has taken any actions, at least not publicly, to delay or cancel programs. Nayak said that if any actions are taken then affected contractors will be notified and the department will update its Acquisition Planning Forecast System.
However, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate panel that budget cutbacks stemming from the sequester have led to the cancellation of cyber security exercises and will require delays in developing defenses for federal cyber networks.
Napolitano said the sequester will force a bout a one-year delay in implementing a cyber intrusion prevention capability that DHS is deploying to help protect federal computer networks. The intrusion prevention capability is the third phase of the EINSTEIN program, which began with initial analytics capabilities and then added intrusion detection in the second phase.
She also said that sequester will disrupt long-term efforts to grow the department’s cyber workforce.
Nayak said that DHS is doing all it can to mitigate the impact of the budget cuts to the department because of the sequester.