Homeland Security ID Effort Stalls: AnalystHomeland Security ID Effort Stalls: Analyst

A high-priority program to guard against terrorist attacks and other security incursions by deploying a common ID standard for federal employees has been "stalled by uncertainty," according to government market research firm Input.

In an e-mail Wednesday, Bruce Brody, Input's vice president of information security, said the program is suffering from a lack of "executive-level push" and other factors that have combined to cause the logjam.

Input said progress has been slowed because of uncertain guidance provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and General Services Administration (GSA.)

"If this is not orchestrated properly from the senior levels in the Executive Branch, we will witness a large-scale train wreck resulting in an inefficient expenditure of resources," Brody said referring to HSPD-12 (Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12.)

"For HSPD-12 implementation to proceed successfully, federal agencies need a consolidated representation of issues and risks and a sound program management roadmap."

Input noted that an interagency working group on HSPD-12 had been successfully working in a common manner to sort through the problems and solutions of the measure, but the working group was disbanded. Also, there were changes in management, which also contributed to the delay.

Brody cited a litany of reasons the program has been stalled including the sheer aggressiveness of HSPD-12 and the lack of clear guidance and direction as well as the executive level not pushing hard enough on government units to shift funding from other areas to support the security program.

"The lack of clear requirements to build a sound program management plan around (HSPD-12,) the lack of vision and empowerment to re-engineer and improve agency processes across mission lines, and other similar problems all collaborate to make this a potential train wreck," Brody said.