Person Authentication Service (PAS) support services

The U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid (FSA) Acquisitions Office is procuring Person Authentication Service (PAS) and Access and Identity Management System (AIMS) support services under a sole-source, firm-fixed-price task order valued at $4.98 million. The contract, solicited under number 91003126F0040 and issued via the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (47QTCA20D000E), is justified under FAR Subpart 8.4 and GSAR 538.7104-3(b)(ii) due to the unique institutional knowledge and operational integration held by the incumbent contractor, PPS InfoTech, LLC, which is critical to maintaining uninterrupted authentication services for over 100 million users during a protest-related transition delay. Performance is located in Rockville, Maryland, with a base period from July 1 to September 30, 2026, and optional extensions through December 2026, plus a potential six-month extension under FAR 52.217-8 to ensure continuity. The work involves maintaining secure, high-availability identity federation systems using OAuth, OIDC, SAML, and LDAP protocols, with strict compliance to CUI handling requirements under 32 CFR Part 2002. The contract emphasizes operational continuity, cybersecurity resilience, and system stability over cost as the primary determinant for award, leveraging the contractor’s established technical expertise and seamless integration with FSA systems. No formal evaluation factors, weights, or adjectival ratings are documented, and no solicitation instructions are provided to prospective offerors, as this is an internally justified sole-source action. The contracting officer, Emmanuel Wilson, and technical representative, Von Kratt, are the primary points of contact, with payment and administrative responsibilities managed by the FSA Contract Operations Division in Washington, D.C., and no additional packaging, marking, or invoicing specifics are detailed beyond the service nature of the effort.