The U.S. Court of Federal Claims earlier this month imposed a temporary restraining order on the Transportation Security Administration to prevent the agency from awarding a contract to Unisys [UIS] for the integration of security equipment at U.S. airports.
The restraining order is in effect until March 16 to give the court more time to adjudicate a challenge by General Dynamics [GD], which is the incumbent on the Security Technology Integrated Program (STIP). As of our deadline on March 19, the court hadn’t issued a final ruling.
The court said in its ruling for the restraining order that it has to review a nearly 8,000 page administrative record on top of the parties’ briefs before being in a position to decide on the merits of the case.
GD filed its claim with the court in January and the temporary restraining order was issued on March 2 and published March 7. A stop work order issued by TSA to Unisys has been in effect but the court says the agency didn’t respond to its March 1 request to continue the stay until March 31, leading the court to “reluctantly” issue the temporary restraining order.
The court’s ruling also says that GD’s current contract bridge extension, which was awarded pending resolution of the protest, would expire on March 18.
GD originally protested TSA’s award of the Domain Awareness Integrated Contract (DOMAIN)—the new name for STIP—last December with the Government Accountability Office. The company withdrew the protest when it filed its claim against TSA with the claims court. The complaint is sealed.
Under STIP, GD was networking TSA’s 15,000 pieces of security equipment used at U.S. airport to screen parcels and people for potential threats. Of the equipment that had been connected, TSA directed in 2015 that it be disconnected due to potential cyber security concerns in the wake of a breach of personnel records at the federal Office of Personnel Management.
TSA has indicated that this year it plans to test a solution that will provide cyber protections and allow it to begin reconnecting its detection systems as part of DOMAIN. It’s unclear at the moment what impact the protest and subsequent restraining order have had on program plans.
Unisys in early January announced it had won the potential five-year, $250 million DOMAIN contract.
The restraining order says that TSA is paying GD’s Mission Systems business $10,950.90 per day under a bridge contract to continue work on STIP.