Biometric Update reports that the U.S. General Services Administration has awarded XTec a contract valued at up to $177.2 million to modernize and manage USAccess, the federal government's shared credentialing platform.
The award, which follows a competitive bidding process with four proposals, includes an initial obligation of $9 million. Serving over 100 federal agencies, USAccess currently supports lifecycle management for about 600,000 PIV cards under the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12.
The new agreement will transform the service into a modular, cloud-ready identity framework supporting modern standards such as SAML 2.0, OpenID Connect, and OAuth 2.0. XTec succeeds Peraton, whose contract expires in 2027, marking a major shift toward scalable, API-first federal identity infrastructure. GSA officials said the move reflects a "next-generation" approach emphasizing mobile and passwordless credentials.
The transition, aligned with the governments HSPD-12 Core Service Next Generation initiative, aims to strengthen interoperability, security, and resilience across the federal credentialing ecosystem.
