The Transportation Security Administration awarded May 19 a $489 million contract to Computer Sciences Corp. for information technology infrastructure.

The contract, known as the Information Technology Infrastructure Program, augments TSA's ability to protect its information technology network from cyber threats and ensures TSA has the IT infrastructure to support computing and communications hardware, software and related services, a TSA official said in a statement.

TSA attempted to award the contract to CSC in September, but a successful protest to the Government Accountability Office by General Dynamics and incumbent Unisys required TSA to re-evaluate company proposals.

Unisys's tenure as the TSA's infrastructure contractor has been rocky, at least in the past. A 2006 Homeland Security Department inspector general  report found several problems with the Unisys contract.

"We were given a hodge-podge of $20 Radio Shack sale rack phones with which to conduct business," one TSA employee told auditors.

TSA awarded CSC the contract through the DHS EAGLE multiple award contract vehicle; its value of nearly half a billion takes place over five years.

In related news, DHS released May 21 a draft solicitation for EAGLE II, which could potentially be worth $22 billion over seven years. DHS says a final request for proposals should be ready by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010 with contract awards planned for mid fiscal 2011.

For more:
- see the TSA statement on the CSC contract award.
- read the final GAO ruling on ITIP protest (.pdf).
- read the 2006 IG report on TSA information technology infrastructure (.pdf).
- go to the EAGLE II FBO page

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