Private sector waiting on government funding

Businesses with homeland security-related products or services that government agencies may want to buy are finding that securing some of the nearly $40 billion proposed for contracts isn’t easy.

According to those who have tried to get that funding, and even officials at the Department of Homeland Security, you’re going to need to put your hand back in your pocket and, instead, put on your thinking cap.

The money isn’t available, yet. ?Congress hasn’t appropriated the (fiscal year) 2003 funds,? said Brian Roehrkasse, a department spokesman. The department just moved into its new office and is still staffing up, he said. And there’s no process yet for funding.

The department, the federal government’s third largest with 22 agencies and 170,000 employees, was created Jan. 23, two months after the Homeland Security Act of 2002 was signed into law.

Congress passed the 2003 budget appropriation Feb. 13, but as of press time President Bush had not yet signed it into law.

Even though the budget was passed, no one knows exactly how much has been appropriated for homeland security, said Richard Busch, special counsel with Boulder law firm Lathrop & Gage. ?People looking for instant gratification? will be disappointed, he said. It’s important for companies with homeland security-related widgets and services to not wait around for the department to dispense funds, he said.

What they should do, Busch said, is take note of a number of purchasing changes put into law by the Homeland Security Act. The new laws streamline the process for antiterrorism procurements by all federal agencies, allowing them to more easily purchase commercial off-the-shelf products.

The department will have these streamlined procurement procedures for five years while the other federal agencies will have them for one.

Busch suggests taking this knowledge and looking for grants and other procurement vehicles while homeland security budgets are being put into place. ?The money is out there, and the technology requests are out there,? Busch said. ?You just have to look for it.?

One place to look, Busch suggests, is at Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs). BAAs are published by various federal agencies that are exploring innovative technologies. Interested parties submit an initial proposal, and if it’s accepted, the agency provides grant money.

Another place Busch recommends is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The program funds research and development efforts toward the commercialization of technology. SBIR sends out requests for proposals (RFPs) from numerous federal departments including the Department of Defense and the Department of Commerce.

Massively Parallel Technologies Inc. of Louisville has gone Busch’s recommended route. The company has developed a low-cost supercomputer by clustering personal computers, a technology that could have homeland security applications.

So Massively Parallel watched the BAAs as they rolled out, said Jerry Verbeck, chief financial officer, and applied for a grant to fund a ?proof of concept? through the government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects. The company then contacted research and engineering giant SAIC (Science Applications International Corp.), which had obtained homeland security earmarked money from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). ?We said, ?look what we can do,’? Verbeck said. SAIC subsequently hired Massively Parallel as a subcontractor on its NIMA contract.

Longmont-based DigitalGlobe Inc. also is working with NIMA, providing high-resolution imagery and geospatial data to the agency through its QuickBird satellite. Spokesman Chuck Herring said the company isn’t going out and applying for homeland security specific money, but thinks DigitalGlobe has relevant technology that will probably be used for that end. ?We expect that homeland security will help us out and impact our bottom line,? Herring said, but he couldn’t say when. ?It’s starting to happen, but it’s a new agency, a new idea, a new concept,? he said. ?What people are supposed to be doing at every level we don’t know yet.?

Companies in search of homeland security-related government contracts also can check out the General Services Administration (GSA). The GSA runs the Federal Business Opportunities Web site where federal agencies post RFPs for goods or services more than $25,000. The GSA maintains schedules of commercial goods and services available to federal customers. Interested companies can submit information and prices of their particular product or service to be added to these lists.

Federal agencies, however, are no longer required to go through the GSA for procurement, said GSA spokeswoman Mary Alice Johnson.

Leslie Taufer, president of Boulder-based information technology consulting company Boulder Corp., is preparing for the day homeland security money is appropriated. The first thing she did was achieve ?disadvantaged business? status through the Small Business Administration (SBA). Also known as 8(a), this status allows small women- and minority- owned businesses to compete more effectively against the big boys. Taufer also applied for GSA schedule status.

But mostly she’s been networking. ?If you are doing information technology consulting, you should be contacting every public safety sector you can think of — Boulder police, Boulder County sheriff, El Paso County police,? Taufer said. ?Those are the people who are going to be getting the funding.?

Taufer also said she’s getting to know all the contracting officers within the state and local public safety facilities. ?Make sure you present your product to all of these people who are interested in homeland security-aimed products,? she said. ?Biometrics, security checks — whatever falls in the realm of security.?

Taufer said she has a number of projects in proof of concept mode and total cost of ownership mode, but would not say who the potential clients are. Although Taufer is waiting, like everyone else, for funding to be released, she has a very positive attitude. ?We’re having a great time,? she said. ?We’re poised because we have talked to everybody.? Contact Caron Schwartz Ellis at (303) 440-4950 or e-mail csellis@bcbr.com.

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