Why consolidating PIV cards won't work in the Federal Government

Like many D.C. area consultants, I distribute my time across multiple agencies which in turn requires multiple federal ID badges. The original design of the PIV/CAC card was to have a single badge and let multiple agencies put their "access" on that card. Through the years I've had many discussions on this topic on how ridiculous it is for me to have 4-5 federal badges. I've now come to conclude they are 100% necessary... here is why. Recently, for the first time ever, I was cleared at a new agency and instead of giving me a new badge they said they would "bond" their agencies credentials to an existing badge that I already had. I picked one of my badges, pretty much at random, and it was done. At that moment, I sat up in my chair and had a sudden moment of optimism... maybe, just maybe, over time I could get down to a single government badge. I walked out of the security office pretty excited about the future. Then, only 3 weeks later, I visited a government agency that I hadn't been to in a couple months. I went to scan my badge and nothing happened... the gates didn't open. I tried again and again and eventually the security lady checked and found that my badge was no longer on a CLIN that was active. She took my badge and said I could get it back when I was on an active project. Getting back on the "active" part of the contract was simply paper work but at that moment I realized how lucky I was that just 3 weeks earlier I had bonded my new credentials to a different badge (not the one that was just taken from me). If I had happened to pick that badge then I would be kind of stuck. I can just imagine how the conversation would go...

• Me: "You can't take my badge... it has another agencies credentials on it"
• Security Officer: "That other agency doesn't pay me... this one does... sorry"

And there you have it, while completely ridiculous, the simple fact is that federal agencies generally don't cooperate well with each other. In conclusion my giant lanyard will continue to exist for years to come.