Under the Bush presidency, U.S. federal government identity and smart card programs have grown tremendously. But with the election less than two weeks away, one important question on people are wit a question that" what will happen under the next administration?" as the election poling is just ahead. This was a common theme for presenters as the Smart Card Alliance kicked off its three-day, 7th annual government conference and hosted a meeting of the federal government's Interagency Advisory Board.

According to Jeremy Grant, identity solution analyst for Stanford Group, an investment banking and advisory company- cards, biometrics and identity spending got a boost from two wars and programs to improve homeland security, . Grant estimates federal spending on major U.S. identity solution programs grew 58.6 percent in 2007 to $1.6 billion, and by another 47.5 percent current year. He projects spending growth will flatten in 2009, growing by 3.1 percent.
 
Looking forward to the new administration of either candidate, Grant expects good support for Homeland security programs like TWIC, electronic passport and U.S. VISIT. He said "Identity programs haven't been especially partisan,"
 
Grant is especially bullish on the prospect for biometrics for defense and intelligence identity application programs, which have proven themselves as worthful warfighting tools against the asymmetric threat facing America today. U. S. Army Special Forces in Iraq are entrancing fingerprints for detainees, and finding 29 percent of them are getting a match in DoD databases, granting them to identify and remove about two people a day who are recognized to be involved in Improvised Explosive Device (IED) activity against U.S. troops. "Refusing the enemy anonymity has shown it can help win wars," Grant said. 

According to Grant, with this economy, a valuable bailout and predicts for more healthcare coverage negotiable, working out identity strategy is likely to be low on the list of priorities for either new president. 
 
Identity is so difficult to so many missions of the Office of Homeland Security they've made an organization dedicated to it. Kathleen Kraninger, director of the Office of Screening Coordination has explained that their function is "to analyze how we look at identity for the long-run over all of our programs" and to try to rationalize what until now have tended to be separate systems and applications.
 
Attending more generally at information security, there's been an rousing in past years to its importance and the fact that the terror has stepped up from individual cyberpunks to organized crime to the nation/state level, As per to Paul Kurtz, a consultant on cyber security to both the Clinton and Bush administrations and who's presently chief operating officer of Good Harbor Consulting and an on-air consultant to CBS News. The Bush administration's Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) identified key issues, including a very low level of situational awareness, and cybersecurity has been put up as a key transition issue. Kurtz predicts that the pendulum will swing and government will start to do more active information security, including work on supply chain security management, more efficient attack analysis and ascertaining how HSPD-12 could be thrust out beyond government.