diff --git a/iam-saml/bin/external_get-saml-metadata.sh b/iam-saml/bin/external_get-saml-metadata.sh
index 21a3986..719d461 100755
--- a/iam-saml/bin/external_get-saml-metadata.sh
+++ b/iam-saml/bin/external_get-saml-metadata.sh
@@ -3,12 +3,12 @@
 #set -e
 eval "$(jq -r '@sh "AWS_ENVIRONMENT=\(.aws_environment) OUTPUT=\(.output_file) URL_PREFIX=\(.url_prefix)"')"
 
-if [ -z $AWS_ENVIRONMENT ]
+if [[ -z $AWS_ENVIRONMENT ]] || [[ "$AWS_ENVIRONMENT" == "null" ]]
 then
   AWS_ENVIRONMENT="east-west"
 fi
 
-if [ -z $URL_PREFIX ]
+if [[ -z "$URL_PREFIX" ]] || [[ "$URL_PREFIX" == "null" ]]
 then
   URL_PREFIX="https://id-provider.tco.census.gov/nidp/saml2/metadata?PID="
 fi
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ then
   exit 1
 fi
 
-if [ -z $OUTPUT ]
+if [[ -z "$OUTPUT" ]] || [[ "$OUTPUT" == "null" ]]
 then
   OUTPUT="metadata.$(date +%s).xml"
 fi