Homeland Security Prepares New IT Set-Aside The Homeland Security Department plans a small business set-aside version of its EAGLE contract for IT services. A request for information on EAGLE II will be issued early next year to get feedback from industry, said Soraya Correa, director of the department’s Office of Procurement Operations. Twenty-eight small firms and 25 large ones won places on the contract in 2006, but Correa said nine of the small businesses have since been acquired or have outgrown their size standard. As a result, the department has been looking for ways to maintain small business participation in its premier IT contract vehicle. “We think EAGLE II, a specific small business group of contractors, is the way to go,” Correa said at DHS’s Industry Day in Washington Dec. 3. While planning is still in progress, she said the contract will likely allow for set-asides to separate pools of small, 8(a), service-disabled veteran and HUBZone companies. “Our concept in EAGLE II is to attract and retain the best and brightest small businesses in those pools to bring the technology products and services that we need to the Department of Homeland Security,” she added, while declining to say how many contracts might be awarded. DHS contracting officers are required to consider EAGLE and its companion First Source contract for IT commodities before using any other IT vehicles. Eleven small businesses participate in First Source, a set-aside. Correa said $780 million has been awarded under that contract since awards were made in February 2007. DHS officials said they have completed the Phase I down-select for the PACTS contract for non-IT services, a multiple award set-aside for service-disabled veterans. The selected companies were notified earlier this month, and will be invited to submit Phase II proposals, with awards expected before the end of the fiscal year in September. The department expects to use PACTS to fill most of its administrative, clerical and technical services requirements. The contract has a $1.5 billion ceiling over five years. DHS’s chief procurement officer, Tom Essig, said the department met all of its socioeconomic goals last year except the 3% goal for SDVs. He said the PACTS contract will give major new opportunities to those firms.