Government Watch

SIA's Erickson to advise on GSA schedules Don Erickson, director of government relations for the Security Industry Association, has been tapped by Lurita Doan, head of the Government Services Administration, to serve on a new blue ribbon panel formed by the GSA to make recommendations about how to improve the GSA schedules program. According to SIA, the panel's recommendations will be finalized and submitted to Doan this fall. Extending the GSA cooperative purchasing is one of SIA's legislative priorities. GSA schedules offer federal agencies the ability to buy commercial goods at volume discount pricing. SIA would like to see the schedule extended so that security products could be purchased in this way by federal agencies. Passage of Secure our Schools grant urged Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) and 27 other members of Congress sent a letter March 19 urging the House Appropriations Committee to provide $30 million in funding for Secure Our Schools, a school-safety program. The program provides funds for security systems, including access control and video surveillance, in K-12 schools across the country. “SIA led the industry's effort to secure support for this letter and we nearly tripled our original goal of 10 signatories," Erickson said. Zivney testifies on the Hill As Security Systems News went to press in early April, Rob Zivney, vice president of marketing for Hirsch Electronics, a manufacturer of access control and security management solutions, was preparing to represent the SIA before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Government Reform and testify on the implementation progress of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12). Issued by President Bush in 2004, HSPD-12 requires all federal government employees and contractors to have a trusted identity badge for both physical and logical access, but federal agencies have struggled to comply with deadlines. S.C. sprinkler bill progresses A bill that has been watered down considerably over the past couple months passed out of its South Carolina state Senate committee in late March. The bill, which initially sought to mandate sprinklers in certain buildings, would now “give property owners tax credits of 50 percent of the cost of installing a sprinkler system, but only if local governments grant the option of providing half that incentive," according to a report in Greenville Online. South Carolina has had several recent major fire incidents, including a fire in Greenville that killed six people, a Charleston fire that killed nine firefighters, and a fire at a North Carolina beach that killed seven South Carolina college students. SIA Government Summit The Security Industry Association will host a two-day Government Summit June 9-11 in Washington, D.C. The summit will examine federal and state initiatives that affect the industry and feature appearances by government decision makers who drive procurement policies and regulations, including keynote speakers Rep. David Price, chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, and Hugoi Teufell III, chief privacy officer of DHS. A keynote debate on key issues and the presidential race will feature television personalities Tucker Carlson and CNN analyst and former advisor to Pres. Clinton, Paul Begala. ssn