"The departments and agencies have done a good job across the board of meeting the first set of deadlines and we are hopeful that procurement will occur within a timeframe that allows agencies to begin issuing cards by October 27," Barker said.

The GSA, which is responsible for helping agencies procure PIV components such as card and biometric readers, hopes to seek solicitations soon from vendors interested in supplying PIV-compliant products to the government. The GSA is also responsible for testing and approving 20 different categories of products to make sure they meet the interoperability requirements mandated by HSPD-12. So far, the agency has posted test-and-approval procedures for nine of those products and hopes to have the others ready soon, Temoshok said, without specifying a date. Once all the procedures have been finalized, the GSA hopes to test, evaluate and approve products "very, very quickly," he said.