Border Security Technology Consortium wins tentative green light from CBP

The folks attempting to organize a Border Security Technology Consortium and win the approval of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to work with them to streamline some of that agency’s procurement and R&D procedures, heard some good news on July 17.

CBP’s office of technology innovation and acquisition announced online that it was willing to “explore the benefits” of such a newly-established Consortium and would participate in a government/industry/academia workshop scheduled for August 2.

“Based on industry response to date, the Government is interested in moving forward in partnership with the consortium on technologies related to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, infrastructure, communications, and other technologies related to the border security mission,” said a special notice posted by CBP.

As reported by Government Security News on June 22, the new Consortium is promoting the use of “Other Transaction” procurement authority, which would enable CBP -- and perhaps other DHS components -- to move more quickly in placing small R&D contracts and launching small pilot programs for innovative technologies.

“We anticipate funding within this technology domain of an estimated annual funding between $10M and $25M and a period of performance between 5 and 7 years,” the notice continues.

The industry workshop will be facilitated by the Washington Homeland Security Roundtable for all interested organization. Parties can register by clicking here. “Due to space constraints and tremendous interest in the BSTC Industry Workshop, registration is limited to 350 individuals and no more than 2 representatives per organization,” says the Roundtable, on its Website. A fee of $25 per registrant will be charged for this workshop.

Further information is available from Susan Baptist, a DHS contracting officer, at 202-344-1223.