DHS plans $100M contract to consolidate biometric identity examination

The US Department of Homeland Security plans a single contract worth up to $100 million to combine fingerprint, face and iris examination, identity record correction and accuracy analysis for its biometric repository, which holds records on more than 300 million people. The work, now split across three contracts held by one firm, supports the IDENT system and its delayed replacement, HART, and shares data with the FBI, Defense and State Departments. The procurement shows persistent, multi-modal biometric identification becoming more integrated and routine, which makes oversight of errors and access increasingly important.