USAccess Program Overview
The USAccess program is an initiative offered to Agencies to issue and to manage a common Federal identity Credential for their employees and contractors. These Credentials provide an easily recognizable way to identify and authenticate federal employees and contractors.
The GSA established the USAccess program in response to the HSPD-12 Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors. HSPD-12 mandates for the first time that federal identity management and credentialing systems be interoperable. The standards based approach provides a means for government-wide technical interoperability and common basis for reciprocity.
What this means is you will be issued a PIV Credential that you might be able to use to authenticate yourself to systems run by multiple Agencies, not just your sponsoring Agency, and be granted access to certain federal government facilities using this one credential.
