Homeland Security Acquisition Plans Sought The House Government Reform Committee is examining acquisition policy at the Department of Homeland Security. Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge asking detailed questions about the department’s acquisition organization. “The Committee is interested in learning about efforts to eliminate “stovepipe” acquisition systems and create an integrated program,” Davis wrote. “We are also interested in learning how the Department is planning to organize and train its acquisition workforce, and how it is managing and planning for its major procurement programs.” Since the department stood up March 1, officials have said that DHS’s 22 component agencies are still handling procurements through their existing offices. Davis asked how the department plans to integrate those offices into a department-wide organization. He also asked whether DHS’s chief procurement officer will have authority over other procurement offices in the department. DHS’s 2004 procurement budget is about $20 billion, said Michael Dufault, research director at Equity International, at the firm’s Nov. 10 briefing in Washington. Other departments and agencies will spend about the same amount on homeland security-related matters, according to Bill Hoagland, a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN). Dufault described the department as “small business and subcontractor-friendly,” but said small firms will need to team with a larger partner to participate in the department’s major purchases. “Find a partner and do it quickly,” he said. DHS has proposed a 40% subcontracting goal for small businesses, Kevin Boshears, director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, told Congress last month. (SAA, 10/31) He said the department plans to meet the governmentwide 23% goal for small business prime contracts and all other socioeconomic goals.