i'm a contract specialist for the gsa in the national capital region. i'm spending the first year getting my certifications, and learning everything i can about the federal contracting process. i graduated in may of this past year, 2010, from george mason with a bachelor of science in public management. i knew the job market was going to be very tough, just from watching the news, and hearing some stories from some of my friends who were on the job hunt and were having a very difficult time just finding places to apply to. i was feeling pretty desperate, i'm not going to lie. it was getting to the point where i was pretty much applying to anything that would give me a paycheck. when you don't really realize how bad the job market is, you don't think about other options, such as the options i was considering, such as construction, retail, manual labor. on a whim, i went to a job fair. the difference between a job fair and a web site is people go to job fairs, employers go to job fairs specifically searching for people to hire. i picked up a lot of contac

to have our products on gsa and procurement models, we have to meet certifications. we do that. could we do more? yes. when we look at the supply chain and products acquired in to government, sometimes those of the critical areas that we need to make sure our secure. when we look at those environments, many times the procurement process does not have security standards for a lot of products acquired. let's say they buy a mobile phone or pc. is it secure? how do we keep the balance of speed of procurement and key to safety? those are important areas for us to a dance as we move forward. i am in favor of more security when we are procuring and more certification for that. i think it is needed. >> should the onus be on industry to ensure the products come from a reliable source? these days, the supply chain comes from across the globe. should the industry make sure the products being used in their development meet certain security standards? >> i think it can be. in many parts of our high tech news, we already have standards like that for safety. i use the power example where you h

certainly, to have our products on gsa and some of the procurement program models we have to meet certifications, and we do that. but to your point, could we do more? yes. certainly when we look at the supply chain and we look at products that are acquired into government, sometimes those are the critical areas that we need to make sure are secure. and when we look at those environments, many times the procurement process doesn't have security standards for lots of products that are acquired. they do for security in some areas, but let's say they just buy a mobile phone or a pc or a usb stick. is it secure? and how do we create the proper balance between keeping the speed for procurement but also keeping the safe -- safety there too? i'm all in favor of a little more security posture, clearly, when we're procuring and a little bit more certification for that. i think it's needed. >> host: so should the onus be on industry to insure that the products through the supply chain come from a reliable source? i know that's difficult because these days the supply chain comes from across the globe. shoul

certainly to have our products on gsa and some of their procurement program models we have to meet certifications and we do that. but to your point, could we do more? yes. certainly when we look at the supply chain and we look at products that are required into a government, sometimes those are the critical areas that we need to make sure our secure, and when we look at those environments many times the procurement process doesn't have security standards for lots of products that are a choir. they do for security in some areas but let's say they just buy a mobile phone or a pc or a usb stick. is a secured and how do we create the proper balance between keeping the speed for procurement but also keeping the safety they are too. those are the important areas for us to advance as we move forward so i am in favor of a little bit more security posture clearly and we are procuring a little bit more certification for that. i think it is needed. >> guest: should the onus be on industry to ensure that the products through the supply chain, from a reliable source? i know it is difficult because these days

is close to issuing a new standard that no longer will allow that and will require -- >> then after gsahas a new standards there will be an apples to apple comparison? >> yes. >> all the panelists agree with that? >> i believe that's so. >> so this is pending. it's about to happen, and it doesn't require legislation? >> i might clarify. it's a rule that is going to require them to use the abo versus the tbo or are you referring to 25? working on the discount rule, but i don't think they solved that problem. >> yeah, i mean, they're working both together. i don't know what they're going to call. >> so, in the next few months we will have greater come come parrability with the states to compare with the states involved. >> that is my understanding. of course, they haven't put out the final rule yet, but they are working on it. >> are all the panelists hopeful about this? >> i know they are looking at it. i'm hopeful. they took all the comments, had a draft rule in september, and they are far down. line. i think it's appropriate because all the stake holders had a chance to comment. it's n