U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) wants the Treasury Department to piggyback onto the larger contract, which is out for bid now, so the government can save money, streamline the number of vendors used and avoid a duplication of efforts.

"[Davis] is always against agencies stovepiping their own solutions when the whole point of IT is to make things smoother, especially interagency" processes, said Robert White, a spokesman for the congressman.

Specifically, Davis wants the Treasury Department to give up on its Treasury Communications Enterprise (TCE) departmentwide contract and join in on the larger-scale Networx package. Networx is the new governmental telecommunications procurement program being set up by the General Services Administration (GSA) to replace the existing FTS2001 telecom contract. Among the federal agencies now using FTS2001 are the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Agriculture and Health and Human Services; NASA; and the Social Security Administration. Those agencies will move to the Networx contract when it is completed.

If the Treasury Department won't give up on its TCE plan, Davis could mount an effort to cut funding for the deal, White said. "That is an option he would pursue," White said. "There's some feeling that Treasury should be a part of Networx."

A spokesman for the Treasury Department declined to comment on the dispute.