EPA Contractor Spotlight: Blue Canopy

eco-friendly (41)in #epa • 6 years ago (edited)

Mainstream environmentalists aren't often in the habit of criticizing the EPA because they seem to assume the EPA is fulfilling an environmental protection purpose. But free-market environmentalists (ie, non-mainstream) see government agencies like the EPA as part of the problem. Polluting companies and industries can pay off the EPA in order to continue polluting and big companies can compete with smaller ones by encouraging expensive EPA regulations -- many of which don't solve environmental problems. This failure to solve problems is built in to these government "solutions" because perpetual problems give the government its perpetual mandate.

One company contracting for the EPA is Blue Canopy, a corporation that won the GovCon award for government contractor of the year in 2016. Its work for the EPA involves strategic IT support. Its ITS-BISS III FA1 contract involves assisting the agency with information technology and management services. On June 12, 2018 a contract was awarded to Blue Canopy worth $13.5 million, an amount that dwarfs what the EPA generally pays to its contractors for actual environmental work.

Blue Canopy also contracts for other government agencies, including the various military agencies, Medicare/Medicaid, and the NIH. In fact, the company currently holds a $20 billion contract for NIH's IT services through 2022. And to acquire these lucrative contracts, Blue Canopy employs well-connected lobbyists. John Boylan, who has lobbied on behalf of Blue Canopy through the firm of Cassidy & Associates, is a former division manager in the Air Force. Mark Hegarty, who also lobbied for Blue Canopy, worked at the Pentagon for the Air Force. George Meyers, the company's third lobbyist, worked in legislative affairs for the Air Force.

And according to JudicialWatch, the Obamacare website was launched back in 2013 despite several security issues that put the Health and Human Services agency at increased cyber risk. Blue Canopy was a contractor testing the website's security, but the website was launched anyway.