The Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12), released August 27, 2004, calls for the establishment of a Government-wide standard for secure and reliable forms of identification to Federal employees and contractors. The directive eliminates the wide variations in the quality and security of forms of identification used to gain access to Federal facilities and systems. To satisfy the requirements of HSPD-12, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201-1, Personal Identity Verification (PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors. FIPS 201-1 is applicable to all federal employees and contractors and federally controlled facilities. It specifies the standard to be implemented for identification cards, or PIV cards, issued to Federal employees and contractors to gain physical access to federal facilities as well as logical access to government controlled information systems.

The processes required to issue PIV cards provide the attributes of security, authentication, identity verification, trust, and privacy to the card holders, the DOT, and other Federal agencies. All privileges associated with PIV cards issued to DOT employees and contractors are determined by DOT and the respective Operating Administration (OA) or line of business (LOB). The PIV card is the basis for establishing a security trust model across DOT and the Federal enterprise.