Anyone familiar with the federal e-Authentication initiative?

[Art Botterell <acb@incident.com>]

<http://www.cio.gov/eauthentication/index.htm>

And also <http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/state-local/21715-1.html>:

"Timchak said certification and accreditation for the gateway, 
required for all federal IT systems, was completed last week. He 
expects the gateway to begin full production services by early next 
year. The Office of Management and Budget is expected to issue policy 
for four levels of authentication assurance soon. This will be used 
to establish trust standards for credential issuers..." (GCN 4/14/03)

Anyone have any experience / insights?

- Art