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Association Reveals REAL ID Grant Details |
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by Mickey McCarter
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Friday, 20 June 2008 |
American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators to gain contract for national REAL ID hub as DHS scraps a competitive process for state grants
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) Thursday unveiled a plan by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to divvy up grant funds for REAL ID proportionately by state instead of through a competitive process designed to evaluate proposals submitted by states earlier this year.
DHS is scheduled to hold a press conference today to announce block grants for an estimated $85 million in support of the REAL ID Systems Integration and Data Verification Grant Program. In doing so, the department would scrap a competitive competition where it had scored state applications in favor of providing each state with a portion of REAL ID funding.
AAMVA distributed a breakdown of the grant awards in advance of the DHS announcement at a conference it sponsored in California Thursday. The breakdown of awards, obtained by HSToday.us, signifies that AAMVA effectively gains a no-bid contract under the awards, as DHS designates it the sole national centralized database of driver's license information under REAL ID through a grant award to the state of Missouri.
The REAL ID grants provide Missouri with an initial award of $17.5 million to serve as the head state for REAL ID hub testing, implementation and verification. The grant funds to Missouri include $17 million to kickstart the AAMVA REAL ID database, although AAMVA calculates the final costs of building out the database would reach as high as $130 million. AAMVA maintains its driver's license database through a contract with EDS Corp. of Plano, Texas.
Meanwhile, EDS currently charges AMMVA a maintenance fee for maintaining its commercial driver records. That charge, according to sources, is $0.08334 per month for each record. Under REAL ID, then, EDS could become responsible for maintaining up to 240 million driver records across the United States, potentially netting EDS as much as $240 million per year merely for maintaining commercial driver records.
Sources speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the grants told HSToday.us that DHS had competitively scored applications for the REAL ID grants, singling out up to 25 top applications for awards, but recently decided to give every state some of the funds instead. Critics of the process suggested the block award, possibly divided up among states in proportion to the number of drivers eligible for a REAL ID driver's license, defies a congressional mandate for a competitive award process.
Sources at DHS confirmed the AAMVA list of REAL ID grantees Thursday, but they declined further comment until after today's public press conference.
AAMVA has been a strong supporter of the goals of the REAL ID Act of 2005 (PL 109-13), along with the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), which will announce further support for the program and may support DHS at its REAL ID press conference today.
A competitive grant process could have resulted in multiple hub awards instead of a sole-source contract to AAMVA, sources argue, decentralizing REAL ID information somewhat and encouraging the rise of the most effective database solution between competing vendors.
However, although many states did submit proposals in response to the REAL ID guidance, according to a source knowledgeable of the evaluation process, who requested anonymity, many of the state proposals for REAL ID grants were very poor. Evaluators who examined the proposals received by March 7 were surprised by the number that did not even request the funds for the specific program, instead asking for the money to spend on emergency response equipment and other needs.
The leading grantees under the REAL ID grant program, according to the AAMVA chart of awards to be announced today, are states partnering with Missouri to provide a platform for pilot program testing and verification of the AAMVA database hub. Those states include Florida (with $3.7 million), Indiana (with $3.1 million), Nevada (with $2.9 million), and Wisconsin (with $2.1 million). DHS designated $1.2 million of the awards for each pilot state to go to collaborating with Missouri and the AAMVA database.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has estimated the total costs of implementing REAL ID to reach nearly $4 billion over 10 years. Some states, angry at being forced to carry out an unfunded mandate from the federal government, have rebelled in recent months and passed legislation to bar their state governments from following the REAL ID regulations issued on Jan. 11.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano Tuesday signed a measure that would prevent implementation of REAL ID in her state because the REAL ID Act lacks "adequate federal funding." Even the House in Missouri, the lead state under the REAL ID grant scheme, passed a measure rejecting REAL ID on March 15, although the measure did not come to a vote in the state Senate.
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Mickey McCarter |
| About the author: |
| eNewsletter Editor/Senior Washington Correspondent,
is a journalist with more than a decade of experience in reporting
on
military affairs and information technology.
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