Nearly half of all Feds have HSPD-12 cards

It was in August 2004 that the White House initiated Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12--a plan to enforce standardization of secure identification credentials for government employees and contractors.

The standard covers both physical and logical access to government resources, including a form of identification that is "strongly resistant to identity fraud, tampering, counterfeiting, and terrorist exploitation." It also requires that the identification be "rapidly authenticated electronically." Last week, the Office of Management and Budget said that almost half of all federal employees and contractors now comply with the directive.

OMB said agencies have issued cards to more than 2.7 million individuals. It said that accounts for 48 percent of all contractors and 47.9 percent of government employees who need the IDs.
 
For more on HSPD-12:
- see this federalnewsradio.com article