EDS Wins $66M Federal ID Card Contract

EDS Wins $66M Federal ID Card Contract

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WASHINGTON -- The General Services Administration has chosen Electronic Data Systems Corp. to supply new identification cards for federal employees and contractors in a deal worth $66 million.

The contract is part of a multibillion-dollar program to issue ID cards using digital technology, such as biometrics, to all federal employees and contractors by October 2008.
The EDS deal was confirmed Tuesday by an industry source with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it has not been publicly announced. Stanford Group Co. analyst Jeremy Grant issued an investor research note early Tuesday predicting that GSA would announce EDS as its choice "in the next day."

A GSA spokeswoman did not return a call for comment, but the agency has scheduled a press conference for 2 p.m. to announce the contract recipient.

Earlier this year, GSA said the winning bidder would have to begin issuing cards within 90 days of the award. The base period on the contract would run through Sept. 30 and include four one-year options through 2011, a GSA spokeswoman said then.

In November, the agency opted not to extend a similar contract with BearingPoint Inc. that was worth $104 million and could have run for five years. That decision followed complaints from bidders EDS, Lockheed Martin Corp. and privately held Xtec Inc. of Miami, who protested the government's evaluation criteria.

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Big Brother's plan for National ID Cards progresses.
Rfid chips, ID cards, and Spycams, oh my...
comments?

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There are benifits and negatives to this. However, what are you willing to give up for those benifits, and what could it lead to? Unfortunately, the American public dosn't know, or isn't aware of what the negatives are or probably the positives, cause after all, it's our goverment right? And hell, the goverment would never do anything bad for the people.

What i want to really want to say is this, first we have the goverment monitoring phone calls, which, in my opinion, was the biggest big brother goverment step so far. Now we have this, it's not a violation of any kind, but it opens doors to where i could go, and thats the problem.

Americas closest ally, the United Kingdom, is far more in a Big Brother state then America. I read an article saying the average Londoner is caught on 300 camera in a single day. America could be influenced by the United Kingdom's goverment and thats why we see things such as this. It commonly happens that allies tend to drift together in the same general direction.

You are absolutely correct Reform America.
I have even heard that Euro bank notes have rfid chips inside them, and that the us has them as well. One thing I remember reading was that $20 bills here in the states were tested by placing 20's in a microwave. Almost every bill tested exploded in a uniform pattern in around the same spot on each bill.
It really brings home how accurate Orwell's 1984 was.