Request for Quotes (RFQ) 11316021Q0005EOP Amd01.docx

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503

July 14, 2021

1. INTRODUCTION

This Request for Quotation is to provide support to The Executive Office of the President (EOP) and its respective components for fully customized news briefings comprised of: (1) Briefing Memo summaries inclusive of the contractor’s write-ups of news stories and/or (2) Analytics inclusive of the contractor’s client-specific dashboards that provide metrics related to news media and social-media. The Government intends to award one Firm Fixed price (FFP) single award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with a ceiling not to exceed $4M for a base plus four option periods.

This is a Combined Synopsis/Solicitation prepared in accordance with FAR Subpart 12.6 and Subpart 13.5. The Contractor shall examine this entire RFQ. Failure to do so will be at the Contractor’s own risk. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a separate written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through FAC 2021-05/3-10-2021

In accordance with FAR 52.232-18, “Subject to Availability of Funds”, funds are not presently available for this effort and no award will be made under this solicitation until funds are available. The Government reserves the right to cancel this solicitation, either before or after the closing date.

This solicitation does not commit the Government to pay any costs incurred by the contractor in preparation and submission of initial, or any subsequent, quotes or for any other costs incurred in response to this solicitation.

The specifics are as follows:

(estimated POP: 09/28/2021 – 09/27/2026)

Extent of Obligation The Government is obligated only to the extent of authorized purchases actually made under the BPA.

Purchase Limitation The contractor shall perform the effort required by this BPA on a Firm Fixed-Price basis. The BPA has a Not-to-Exceed (NTE) ceiling of $4M for a five-year period. The ceiling price is the Government’s best estimate of costs for performance over the five-year period and does not represent a guaranteed total amount. The Performance Work Statement from the BPA shall flow down to the call level, unless a new component requires service that was not initially identified at time of award.

Individuals Authorized to Purchase under the BPA Only authorized users may place orders under the BPA. Authorized users are EOP Contracting Officers. Call Orders shall include, the period of performance, the COR and within the maximum ceiling value as stated in the BPA. All orders placed under the BPA are subject to the terms and conditions of the basic agreement. In the event of any conflict between the order and the BPA, the BPA will take precedence.

2. WRITTEN QUOTATION

The Contractor is requested to submit a written quotation in response to this RFQ; the applicable terms and conditions as listed in this RFQ, and associated Attachments. Further information on the submission of written price quotations is provided throughout this document.

3. QUOTATIONINSTRUCTIONS TO CONTRACTORS

This section of the Instructions to Contractors provides general guidance for preparing quotations as well as specific instruction on the format and content of the quotation. The Contractor’s quotation must include all data and information requested by the RFQ and must be submitted in accordance with these instructions. The quotation shall be compliant with the requirements as stated in this solicitation. Non-conformance with the instructions provided in this solicitation may result in the removal of the quotation from further evaluation.

The technical portion of the quotation shall include information regarding the Contractor’s ability to conform to all required terms and conditions in the solicitation. The Contractor’s quotation shall address all aspects of the PWS, even if not specifically included in an evaluation factor. The technical portion of the quotation is to be submitted as a Microsoft Word 2010 or PDF document. The price quotation spreadsheet shall be a separate document from the technical quotation and shall be submitted in Microsoft Excel 2010 or newer format. All formulas shall remain present in the spreadsheet for verification. Submission of hard-numbered, file protected, or otherwise unworkable excel documents for the price quotation; or submission of PDF files for the price quotation will be deemed non-responsive and may preclude your quotation from further consideration. The Government reserves the right not to consider for award any quotation that does not adhere to the administrative requirements and submission requirements of this RFP.

All quotations shall be submitted in accordance with the details in this RFQ Letter. Section 508 Accessibility Standards do NOT apply to this requirement. The file size of each document shall not exceed 5MB. It is the sole responsibility of the Contractor to ensure that the electronic files submitted are virus free and can be opened and read by the Government. Quotation submissions shall not be locked, encrypted, or otherwise contain barriers to opening.

NOTE: By submitting a quotation in response to this solicitation, you agree that the Government may accept and issue an award that is a binding and enforceable contract. The Contractor has a legal obligation to perform in compliance with all aspects of the EOP Terms and Conditions if awarded the order. Portions of the Contractor’s quotation may be incorporated into the order.

3.1 The following is how the files shall be submitted.

A. Volume I: Order Documentation Volume I shall be organized according to the following outline:

i. Part A: Coversheet The Contractor’s coversheet for the quotation must contain the name, phone number, and email address of the person to be contacted concerning any matter related to the solicitation. Include the following information in your quotation coversheet:

1. Company Name and Mailing Address

2. Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Number, Commercial and Government Entity Code (CAGE), and Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN);

3. Date Submitted and Quotation Expiration Date

4. Type of Company (i.e., small business, 8(a), woman-owned, veteran-owned etc.,) as validated via the System for Award Management (SAM). All Contractors must be registered in SAM at the time the quotation is submitted.

5. Company Point of Contract, Phone, Email Address

6. Signature of Authorized Company Representative

ii. Part B: Provisions and Clauses Response Attachment 4 contains provisions that apply to this solicitation and clauses that will be applicable to the resulting award. Some of the provisions and additional EOP instructions require a response from the Contractor and will need to be submitted along with your quotation. In response to this RFQ, no terms, conditions, or assumptions will be entertained. If terms, conditions, or assumptions are included in a quotation, the quotation may be excluded because it failed to comply with the RFQ requirements.

iii. Part C: Non-Disclosure Agreement All Contractors are required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) which will become part of the permanent contract file. Complete and sign Attachment 3.

iv. Part D-Representation by Corporations Regarding an Unpaid Delinquent Tax Liability or a Felony Conviction Complete the boxes in Attachment 4.

v. Subcontracting Plan All Contractors (other than Small Business) are required to submit a Subcontracting Plan, listing percentages of their proposed SB goals. See attachment 8.

B. Volume II: Technical Approach Contractors must demonstrate the ability to meet the tasks identified by the Government in Attachment 1 (Statement of Work) for any items quoted. Shall not exceed 15 pages.

C. Volume III: Price All pricing may be inserted into Attachment 2 (pricing template) and provided as part of your quotation or provided on through a Contractor determined document. Attachment 2 is provided to assist you in submitting information for other than certified cost and pricing data that is required to evaluate the reasonableness and completeness of your proposed price. The Government will verify that all solicitation requirements have been priced, figures are correctly calculated, and prices are presented in a clear and useful format.

D. Volume IV: Past Performance Information sheets Contractors shall submit completed PPI documents for efforts performed within the past 3 years.

3.2 Evaluation Factors and Basis for Award Determination:

Award will be made to the contractor whose quotation is determined to provide a technically acceptable quote at the lowest price using an LPTA evaluation process. Quotations will be evaluated with regard to technical compliance and on price submissions. All aspects of Attachment 1 must be addressed for a quotation to be considered for award. The quotation should include all information the Contractor wants the Government to consider and evaluated regarding its company’s ability to conform to all required terms and conditions.

The standards for determining technical acceptability are listed below.

The price quotation spreadsheet shall be a separate document from the technical quotation. Quotations may be submitted on the attached pricing and CLIN structure worksheet in MS Excel format utilizing Attachment 2 or the Contractor’s format.

A. Factor 1: Technical Approach

i. The Technical Subfactors will be evaluated and rated either Acceptable or Unacceptable in accordance with the evaluation table below. In order for a quotation to be rated overall Technically Acceptable, the Contractor’s technical approach should affirm the capabilities to execute all tasks specified in Attachment 1 and should clearly describe the approach to fully meet the requirements of Attachment 1. The technical quotation should describe how the Contractor intends to meet the requirements detailed in Attachment 1 for the various different briefing types and by Component. The Contractor shall include an estimate of the personnel hours, by labor category, level, and briefing type, required for each task and subtask included in Attachment 1. The Contractor shall identify for Government evaluation, the following:

· their technical processes for conducting analysis and

· plan of action to ensure the timely delivery of a current and pertinent news briefings, in accordance with Attachment 1.

· Contractor’s approach and quotation strategy for the use of human analysts in creating the daily report that demonstrates an understanding of the Government’s requirements.

· The Contractor shall provide a draft soft copy of White House news summary that will be evaluated for functionality, content, layout, completeness, whether there are working links and search capability, and if it was from the news on the date specified.

· The Government will also evaluate the contractor’s briefing if it clearly demonstrates the Contractor’s use of human analysts to review and synopsize the news.

Evaluation Table-Technical Ratings

B. Factor 2: Past Performance Past performance will be reviewed as part of a responsibility determination for efforts performed within the past 3 years from the date of issuance of this solicitation by the contracting officer, but will not impact the technical evaluation. Contractors shall return a completed Past performance Information sheet (see attachment 3).

If overall past performance is found to be non-responsible, this may be cause for the contractor's proposal to be excluded from further evaluation. However, a prospective contractor shall not be determined responsible or non-responsible solely on the basis of a lack of relevant performance history.

Table 2. Past Performance Ratings

C. Factor 3: Small Business Subcontracting Plan: A small business subcontracting plan is required (FAR 52.219-9), for Other than U.S. Small Businesses only (i.e., Large Businesses). ONLY OTHER THAN U.S. SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACTORS ARE REQUIRED TO SUBMIT A SUBCONTRACTING PLAN. Contractors are required to submit either an individual subcontracting plan, or an approved commercial plan. The Contractor will be required to complete and submit the Subcontracting Review Checklist (Attachment 6) by inserting dollar values and percentages from your subcontracting plan as applicable for items 1-2 and also 3-18 by completing the paragraph and page number columns.

The subcontracting plan is the organizations’ business plan for the inclusion of small businesses within their contracting processes. An individual subcontracting plan highlights the general “potential” for subcontracting opportunities within a specific procurement. The awardee has the “life of the contract” to make a “good faith effort” to ensure that the subcontracted dollars will go to small businesses.

Other than U.S. Small Business Contractors (i.e., Large Businesses) must submit a subcontracting plan that meets the requirements of FAR 19.704 and FAR 52.219-9. Subcontracting plans will only be reviewed for acceptability. The subcontracting plan shall be included in the quotation, and the approved subcontracting plan shall be incorporated into the BPA.

The Subcontracting Plan will be evaluated on an acceptable/unacceptable basis. The Government will evaluate small business participation and commitment as measured against the Total Acquisition Value (TAV) $4M. As a part of this evaluation, the Government will consider the Contractor’s commitment to use small business:

a. To be acceptable, the Offeror must demonstrate a plan to meet the minimum objectives for the participation of small business firms (including those in socioeconomic categories as defined in FAR Part 19) in terms of the percentage and dollars of the total acquisition value, or the Contractor must provide a sufficient justification for its failure to do so.

b. To be acceptable, the Contractor must describe the nature of the commitment with each small business, including the subcontract type.

c. To be acceptable, the Contractor must describe its use of small businesses in terms of the type and complexity of work to be performed as well as a description of the type of agreements and/or commitments to use small business firms under the contract.

d. To be acceptable, the Contractor must explain the specific initiatives and strategies that will be used under the contract to enhance small business utilization and capabilities.

e. To be acceptable, the Contractor must demonstrate the proper flow down of requirements, process management, and performance assessments of small business utilization at the first tier.

* If a contractor does not foresee any Subcontracting opportunities, please provide a rational letter

SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION RATINGS

Evaluation Table-Technical Ratings

D. Price Factor:

(a) Price quotations will be evaluated to determine if the proposed pricing is fair and reasonable. Price reasonableness is established through cost and price analysis techniques as described in FAR 15.404. For a price to be complete, all solicitation requirements must be priced, figures correctly calculated, and prices presented in a clear and useful format. The Government reserves the right, but is not obligated, to conduct a realism analysis. The contractor shall submit pricing for the base period and all option periods, including option pricing for an additional 6-month period that may be authorized IAW FAR 52.217-8. See FAR 52.217-8 which authorizes the Government to require continued performance of any services within the limits and at the rates specified in the contract. These prices shall be identical to the quoted pricing in the 6 months prior to expiration of the base period, or the final option period, if option periods are present. The total evaluated price will consist of the contractor’s proposed price for the base period, all option periods, the option pricing for the additional 6-month period, and surge pricing as requested below.

(b) The Contractor shall perform the effort required by this BPA, at the Call Order level, on a Firm-Fixed-Priced basis. The BPA will have a Not-to-Exceed (NTE) ceiling of $4M for the base and all options. The ceiling price does not represent a guarantee that the volume of purchases for the BPA calls will be to the ceiling. Additionally, the contractor shall provide fixed priced pricing per component utilizing the attached pricing spreadsheet template, or contractor proposed format. The proposed pricing shall provide a breakdown per news briefing, news clip, or the full text of the articles or transcripts for each component (per month), for each year of the BPA, to be included as part of the pre-priced list of offerings at the BPA level, at amounts that will evaluated for fair and reasonable pricing.

(c) Failure to provide complete price data as outlined above and elsewhere in this section may result in the Contractor’s price submission being deemed non-responsible and precluded from further consideration.

D. Exchanges The Government intends to evaluate quotations and award a contract without exchanges with contractors. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct exchanges or seek clarifications if the contracting officer (CO) determines they are necessary. If a contractor’s quotation is removed from further consideration for award, written notice of the removal will be provided to the contractor. In the event issues pertaining to a proposed task cannot be resolved to the CO's satisfaction, the Government reserves the right to withdraw and cancel the proposed solicitation. In such event, schedule contractors will be notified in writing.

4. In response to this RFQ, no terms, conditions, or assumptions will be entertained. If terms, conditions, or assumptions are included in a quotation, the quotation may be excluded on grounds that it failed to comply with the RFQ’s instructions.

5. All quotations received in response to this RFQ shall remain valid for 90 calendar days from the quotation due date below. By submitting a quotation in response to this solicitation, you are submitting an offer that the Government may accept, and you agree that if the Government awards you the contract, the award document sent by the Government to the contractor is a binding and enforceable contract. The contractor has a legal obligation to perform in compliance with all aspects of the SOW if awarded the contract.

6. Portions of the contractor’s quotation may be incorporated into the contract.

7. Questions should be addressed to Gloria.r.norwood@oa.eop.gov and lorie.a.kliewer@oa.eop.gov in writing, no later than July 13, 2021 at 12:00pm (EDT). The Government reserves the right to not answer questions submitted after this time.

8. Quotations are due on July 20, 2021 at 12:00pm (EDT) and should be submitted to the following: Gloria.r.norwood@oa.eop.gov and lorie.a.kliewer@oa.eop.gov.

Sincerely, Gloria R. Norwood

CONTRACTING OFFICER

Attachment 1, Statement of Work (SOW) Rev1

Attachment 2, CLIN Pricing Worksheet

Attachment 3, Past Performance Information Sheet

Attachment 4, FAR Provisions/Clauses & EOP Terms & Conditions

Attachment 5: EOP Non-Disclosure Agreement (shall be returned with quote)

Attachment 6: FAR 52.209-11 Representation By Corporations Regarding Delinquent Tax Liability or a Felony Conviction Under Any Federal Law (FEB 2016)- (shall be returned with quote)

Attachment 7- Questions and Answers

Attachment 8: Subcontracting Plan Review Checklist image1.emf image2.emf

SOW News Summaries BPA.docx

STATEMENT OF WORK

News Briefing Services

1. Background

The Executive Office of the President (EOP) is committed to providing fully customized news briefings comprised varying from: (1) Briefing Memos, the Contractor's write-ups of news stories and/or (2) Analytics, the Contractor's client-specific dashboards that provide useful metrics related to news media and social-media, as described below. Subscribers receive these briefings via desktop and mobile.

This Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) will provide news briefings, news clips, or the full text of the articles or transcripts for Executive Office of the President (EOP) and its respective components. The White House (WHO), Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) currently receive news briefings, however any component may order off the BPA.

2. Scope of Work

The Contractor shall provide each requested component with an aggregation news service focused on topics and sources of interest to the respective component. The Contractor shall produce each service, using expert analysts to search, analyze, and filter the nation's news. Each write-up and/or story referenced in the Briefing Memo or Analytics dashboard will include a hypertext link to the story when it appears on the original publishers' websites.

The Contractor shall monitor all United States (U.S.) online and broadcast news, including daily newspapers, national television and cable news, local television and radio, newsweeklies, relevant magazines and journals, internet sites, specialty press, to identify stories with information of potential interest to WHO, OVP and ONDCP. The Contractor shall utilize human analysts to analyze all referenced news outlets and information sources to synopsize the information so that the reader receives pertinent information in the headings and body of the news listing.

The Contractor shall write Briefing Memo news write-ups for all requested components in a comprehensive manner that informs staff without reading redundant or irrelevant information found in the original full-text stories.

The Contractor shall:

(1) Find relevant stories for the WHO, OVP and ONDCP from the sources described below, using both keyword search and manual-search methodologies, to ensure completeness and avoid redundancy.

(2) Review the stories with an understanding of policy and other news topics that relate to the \ mission of the above-named components.

(3) Determine which aspects of each story are important for the respective briefings.

(4) Organize this material by topic.

(5) Provide summaries of the top articles, as well as hyperlinks to those articles. The Contractor shall provide the story in summary form if the publisher has any restriction on direct use of text.

The Contractor shall monitor news from the following sources:

(1) Newspapers available online nationwide, including but not limited to: the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Detroit News, New York Post, Baltimore Sun, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Post Intelligencer, Atlanta Constitution-Journal, Boston Globe;

(2) Newswires, including but not limited to: Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, UPI;

(3) Television, including but not limited to: national news from ABC, CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, FOX;

(4) Weekly news publications including but not limited to: Newsweek, TIME, the Economist, U.S News and World Report;

(5) Major trade publications including but not limited to the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Weekly; and

(6) Major Blogs including but not limited to the Buffington Post and the Drudge Report.

Contractor must also monitor the Nation's remaining media, including regional and local newspapers, local TV news, Internet news, relevant specialty press, and some overseas press, for unique or breaking stories.

3.0 Tasks

3.1 White House News Summary

3.1.1 Morning Edition

Daily formation of news Briefing Memo write-ups for officials of the White House, providing the same scope as the service Contractor provides today, including coverage for the Office of the First Lady. The Contractor's analyst shall mainly write the Briefing Memo content. The Contractor shall review important news outlets of interest to the EOP, even if that news does not contain relevant keywords. Television news shall include that broadcasted stories and not only stories that appear on the websites of broadcast news outlets.

The Contractor shall use human analyst/editors to:

(1) Find and review articles and broadcasts from all major (and many smaller) daily newspapers, national television and cable news, most local television markets, newsweeklies, relevant magazines and journals, internet sites, specialty press, etc.;

(2) Focus most heavily on the sources specifically named above, but intelligently expand the score when analysts determine a source outside the core list has additional important information or when, for example, the President travels, in which case the White House News Summary will include deeper coverage from outlets in that market.

(3) Apply an in-depth understanding of the total breadth and interest of the EOP's mission;

(4) Determine which aspects of each story, if any, are important to the various constituencies within the EOP;

(5) Edit out all information (not stories, but parts of stories) that is redundant or irrelevant; and weave the remaining (important) information such that it reads as a single story rather than subsets of the myriad stories on the same topic.

In addition to news specific to the EOP and its mission, the Contractor shall also provide a National news section in the briefing suitable to the needs of the EOP officials, to inform them of important developments affecting the federal government broadly, such as with various agencies and Congress.

The Contractor shall provide a link to the original full-text versions, when available on the original publishers' websites, for print articles reference in the briefing. For broadcast stories in which reviewing the actual audio/video would be particularly useful, the Contractor shall provide a link to available video clips that stream to the reader's desktop.

The news included in the Briefing Memo shall be current, meaning the 5 a.m. briefing shall include stories appearing that morning in the nation's newspapers and broadcast in the preceding 24 hours by the nation's national and local television news outlets. The Contractor shall minimize "missed," "day-old," and/or non-relevant stories.

The Contractor shall deliver according to the following:

1) The Briefing Memo shall be delivered weekdays by 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time and by 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time on weekends and Federal Holidays.

2) Include a table of contents organized by subject matter.

3) Availability via an IP-protected web site (including a searchable archive).

4) Daily email notification when a briefing is available and/or a mobile-friendly (iOS) email version.

5) Provide MS Word and/or Adobe PDF formats for easy printing.

6) Provide a section showing the story headlines from the nation's major daily newspapers and story lineup from the previous evening's national news broadcasts.

7) Include a Washington Schedule section for important events scheduled that day.

8) Be available to all employees of the EOP, exclusively for the EOP's internal use.

The Contractor shall be extremely flexible and responsive to accommodate adjustments to the briefing based on changing requirements of the EOP. For example, the EOP estimates that the White House News Summary will average 25-30 pages per day. If the EOP determines that national/global news dictates a longer or shorter briefing to meet the performance requirements, the Contractor shall accommodate changes of this nature within the terms of the existing contract. Similarly, the Contractor shall on such notice, change the topics to be covered; the deadlines; the topic sections; the format of the briefing; etc. as directed. The WHO can change the section areas as necessary as long as the changes do not increase the amount of labor.

3.1.2 Midday Edition

The contractor shall provide Daily (weekdays) News Briefing write-ups (excluding holidays) for officials of the White House, continuing in the same format and style of the White House News Summary. Briefing Memo content shall be largely written by the Contractor's own analysts. The Contractor shall review key news outlets of interest to the EOP, even if that news does not contain relevant keywords available after the 6 AM weekday edition. Television news shall include that which was actually broadcast, not only stories that appear on the websites of broadcast news outlets.

The Briefing Memo shall:

1) Be delivered weekdays by noon Eastern Time

2) Include a table of contents organized by subject matter;

3) Be available via an IP-protected web site (including a searchable archive);

4) Include a daily email notification when a briefing is available and/or a mobile-friendly (iOS) email version;

5) Provide MS Word and/or Adobe PDF formats for easy printing;

6) Include a Morning Cable TV comparison, reviewing story topic order by time against morning shows on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

7) Be available to any and all employees of the EOP, exclusively for the EOP's internal use.

The Contractor shall be extremely flexible and responsive to accommodate adjustments to the briefing based on changing requirements of the EOP. For example, adjusting the delivery time when the President is on travel to different time zones. The WHO can change the section areas as necessary as long as the changes do not increase the amount of labor. The EOP estimates that the White House News Summary-Midday Edition is expected to average 3-5 pages per day.

3.1.3 White House Evening Edition (6PM EDT)

The contractor shall provide the same requirements with the following differences:

1) The evening edition will lead with Washington's Schedule for the next business day when available.

2) The briefing shall also include afternoon coverage from major sources of White House events from that afternoon and major news stories that require the attention of senior White House staff.

3) It shall not include a Cable Show Comparison section.

3.1.4 Cable News Show Comparison (included in the White House Midday edition)

The Contractor shall review morning cable news programming from 6AM to 9AM on weekdays via human analyst to compare topics by time on the morning programs of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. The results of this daily analysis will be displayed graphically in each noon edition.

3.2 WHO Analytics

3.2.1 Analytics Dashboard

At a minimum, the Contractor shall include a news-media analytics dashboard that provides charts and graphs counting the number of daily news stories, including audience size and automated sentiment (positive/negative/neutral) that mention the White House in conjunction with a topic of interest to the White House. The topic shall change each weekday. The Contractor may also propose:

The analytics of the daily topics must track the following story attributes:

1) Sentiment, whether the reader considers the article positive, neutral or negative, and to what degree.

2) Prominence, the extent to which a given topic was the focus of each story (e.g., primary, secondary, mention).

3) Coverage Type, such as front page, interview, etc.

4) Key messages, whether important White House messaging is present in news coverage. The data must be reported in customized dashboards with charts and tables that are ready to use every morning, and able to be sorted by date, media type, top journalists, top sources, and White House-defined topics and subtopics. The Contractor shall be able to create a report that informs the White House about which topics are getting the most coverage in the news.

Based on the Daily Topic, the White House would need to see social media posts on the related daily topic. Social Media posts can come from Twitter, public Facebook, leading blogs, and a wide pool of other social platforms. The Contractor shall provide Option Years for budget purposes, such as including only the data, or only specific "influencers."

3.2.2 Social Media Analytics

The Contractor shall be able to measure and score individual social media posts drawn from Twitter, public Facebook, leading blogs, and a wide pool of other social platforms. The data should report the social media source platform; the date of post; tone; impressions (typically, the number of followers for each poster); engagement (such as retweets and likes); and for Twitter only, whether those posts were "owned" (White House's own posts) or "Earned" (non-White House posts). The Contractor shall present the data in customizable charts, dashboards, or word clouds.

Social Media Analytics shall also include the following the following:

1) Social media data linked to news media scoring in order to help the WHO understand how social media amplifies news stories;

2) How the sentiment varies on a story between news and social media, how certain news outlets compare in the social media they generate; and

3) Who are the most prolific news writers and social media influencers for a particular news story or topic.

Sentiment on social media may be evaluated via software instead of human analysts, in which case the data would be taken as "directional" (e.g. alerting the WHO to trends). The WHO will consider human scoring as it is much more accurate, understanding that high volumes with human analysis will significantly drive up costs.

Rather than work from a pre-defined list of "influencers" on social media, which is a strategy to keep data costs down, the Contractor should have the capability to look at all data, and tell the WHO the "top" people commenting on a given topic, how large the collective audience was, the overall sentiment of their comments, and other attributes.

3.3ONDCP News Summary

The contractor shall provide Daily formation of news Briefing Memo write-ups for officials of the ONDCP (an approximate daily average of 25 stories). The Contractor shall write ONDCP News Briefing (ONDCP-NB) in a comprehensive manner that allows staff to be informed without reading redundant or irrelevant information that would be found in the original full-text stories.

To accomplish this, the Contractor shall:

(I) Find relevant stories from the sources previously described above, though in comparison to the White House News Summary, there will be less focus on top sources and broader inclusion of local news, and will use both keyword search and manual-search methodologies to ensure completeness and avoid redundancy.

(2) Review the stories with an understanding of policy and other news topics that relate to the mission of ONDCP.

(3) Determine which aspects of each story are important for the respective briefings.

(4) Organize this material by topic.

(5) Provide summaries of the top four articles in the Drug-Related News section and the top article in the International Drug-Related News section.

(6) Provide the first two paragraphs of text for other articles (Additional Reading) in the Drug Related News and International Drug-Related News sections, as well as hyperlinks to those articles.

To help identify news of interest, ONDCP will provide the Contractor with as many as 125 search terms, which ONDCP may update up to 15 times in a 12-month period. Each ONDCPNB must include an interactive cover index organized by subject topic, provided by ONDCP, as well as hypertext links to the original media source, when available, and be available for redistribution to all employees of the EOP.

All services shall be performed to ensure the ONDCPNB include the most current news from the past 24-hour period. The Contractor shall deliver ONDCPNB and clips by email by 7:45 am EST Monday through Friday (to include holidays) to ONDCP's Office of Public Affairs. The Contractor shall incorporate news that runs on weekends and Federal holidays into the next business day's ONDCPNB and clips. ONDCP can change the section areas as necessary as long as the changes do not increase the amount of labor. Search terms will be given upon fully executed award.

3.4 OVP News Summary

The contractor shall provide Daily formation of a morning and evening news Briefing Memo for the OVP.

The Contractor shall include full text when the story is freely available on the Internet or, in rare cases, when the Contractor has a license that permits it. The Contractor shall not generally provide stories that are available by subscription only. If a given publisher asks the Contractor not to provide full text to the WHO/OVP, which is a rare occurrence, the Contractor will honor that request. The Contractor shall include a headline, link and a brief write-up when it does not provide full text. The link will go to the story on the original publisher's site and the WHO/OVP would need to subscribe to have access.

Morning deadlines will to be 6:15 AM weekdays and 7:30 AM weekends EST (to include holidays). Evening briefings will be 6:00 PM EST. Both deadlines are subject to adjustments on time and content if the VP is traveling in different time zones. The OVP can change the section areas as necessary as long as the changes do not increase the amount of labor.

3.5 Constraints

1. Technical

a. The Contractor shall distribute the briefing via email, manage the distribution list, and maintain a companion website and archive. The service shall be available exclusively for the internal use of White House employees. Redistribution of the service outside of the White House would require advance written consent of the Contractor.

b. The Contractor shall assign a dedicated contact who is available 24/7 and a dedicated email address to which any employee of the listed components can write 24/7 and which goes to every employee of the company who works on the clips, including senior managers on both day and night shifts.

c. EOP desires the ability to read the briefing on emerging technologies, such as mobile reading devices, tablets, or other personnel data displays.

d. The Contractor shall provide the necessary personnel, facilities, equipment, supplies, services, subcontractors and related administrative and information technology support to accomplish all objectives.

4.0 Delivery

1. What: The contractor must deliver news briefings, news clips, or the full text of the articles or transcripts.

2. Delivery times:

a) WHO:

a. Morning deadlines shall be delivered weekdays by 5:00 a.m. EST and by 7:00 a.m. EST on weekends and Federal Holidays

b. Midday deadlines shall be 12:00 PM EST

c. Evening deadlines shall be 6:00 PM EST

b) OVP:

a. Morning deadlines shall be 6:15 AM weekdays and 7:30 AM weekends EST

b. Evening deadlines shall be 6:00 PM EST

c) ONDCP: The daily deadline shall be 7:45 am EST Monday through Friday.

d) All other component/new users: Delivery shall be established per individual call.

3. Where: All items are to be delivered digitally via email. Email POCs will be establish per component per call.

5.0 Government Furnished Property (GFP) and Government-Furnished Information (GFI):

No GFP or GFI shall be provided for this contract

6.0 Security

No additional security requirements are needed.

7.0 Period and Place of Performance

The period of performance for the BPA is a base year plus four option periods. Each call issued shall have its own identified POP.

8.0 Place of Performance

The place of performance for this effort will be at the Contractor's facility.

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Attachment B.pdf

ATTACHMENT B

FAR 52.209-11 REPRESENTATION BY CORPORATIONS REGARDING

DELINQUENT TAX LIABILITY OR A FELONY CONVICTION UNDER ANY

FEDERAL LAW (FEB 2016)

(a) As required by sections 744 and 745 of Division E of the Consolidated and Further

Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Pub. L. 113-235), and similar provisions, if contained in subsequent appropriations acts, the Government will not enter into a contract with any corporation that—

(1) Has any unpaid Federal tax liability that has been assessed, for which all judicial and administrative remedies have been exhausted or have lapsed, and that is not being paid in a timely manner pursuant to an agreement with the authority responsible for collecting the tax liability, where the awarding agency is aware of the unpaid tax liability, unless an agency has considered suspension or debarment of the corporation and made a determination that suspension or debarment is not necessary to protect the interests of the Government; or

(2) Was convicted of a felony criminal violation under any Federal law within the preceding 24 months, where the awarding agency is aware of the conviction, unless an agency has considered suspension or debarment of the corporation and made a determination that this action is not necessary to protect the interests of the Government.

(b) The Offeror represents that—

(1) It is [ ] is not [ ] a corporation that has any unpaid Federal tax liability that has been assessed, for which all judicial and administrative remedies have been exhausted or have lapsed, and that is not being paid in a timely manner pursuant to an agreement with the authority responsible for collecting the tax liability; and

(2) It is [ ] is not [ ] a corporation that was convicted of a felony criminal violation under a Federal law within the preceding 24 months.

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Q&A News briefing.xlsx Instructions

Q&A INSTRUCTIONS: The purpose of these specific instructions is to expedite the process of answering questions. Please do not change the format of this document.

Complete the spreadsheet tab below named "Q&A" with all questions, comments, and recommendations about the RFP.

Blue text is provided as sample language and should be deleted by contractor before submission.

COLUMN B: Complete the "Page" column. This is the page number from the contract. Do not include the total page number.

COLUMN C: Complete the "Section/Paragraph" column with the applicable section and paragraph number (if applicable) of the contract. Do not include any other extraneous identifiers or other information other then instructed here. If the reference is to a CLIN, Clause, Appendix, or Attachment etc. the entry goes in the next column.

COLUMN D: Complete the "CLIN/Clause/Other" column. Insert the CLIN, Clause, Provision, Appendix, or Attachment number. For example: CLIN 0001, 52.217-8, Appendix A, or Attachment L3.

COLUMN E: Complete the Questions/Comments/Recommendations column. Start the question by referencing the topic. This may help the sorting process. For example: Minimum Qualifications Checklist or Performance Area 10. Then insert the question or comment.

Issues must be submitted to the e-mail address as specified in the solicitation

Q&A

Request for Quote 11316021Q0005EOP

No. RFQ Page RFQ Section/ Paragraph CLIN/ Clause/ Appendix/ Attachment/ Other Questions/Comments/Recommendations Government Response RFQ Change Required (Y/N) Location of Change

1 N/A Could you please tell me if this is a new requirement, or if there is a current or previous contractor who has performed similar services? If available, can you please send along the incumbent contract or task order number? This is follow on to Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) 11316018A0009EOP. Awarded to Bulletin Intelligence LLC N

2 Given the extent of the requirements and the number of anticipated questions, would the government consider providing a 5 business day extension on the submission date? Extension is granted until 7/20 Y

3 We are having issues opening up the final document in the RFQ document (Attachment 6) - can you please reupload? Uploading attachment in AMD response to Q&A N

4 What is the current contract number for the incumbent contract? see Q1 response

6 SOW 3.2 WHO Analytics How many WHO staff require access to the Analytics Dashboard? ~50 staff N

7 SOW 3.2 WHO Analytics Does the Government require the ability to track non-English coverage including non-Latin characters such as Hindi, Cyrcillic, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, etc. in order to gain a global picture of relevant media coverage? No N

8 SOW 3.2 WHO Analytics Does the WHO require the ability to create ad-hoc searches, or new unexpected searches to ensure WHO Staff have the ability to accurately measure breaking and continuing media cycles? No N

9 SOW 3.2 WHO Analytics Is there a need to track for coverage prior to the PoP in order to ensure access to historical media events for comparison purposes? If so, how many years of retroactive content is required? No N

10 SOW 3.2 WHO Analytics Given the nature of the EOP, does WHO staff require that the successful contractor provides access to a mobile app version of the Analytics dashboard (both iOS and Android)? Mobile access via iOS through browser or email client. No app required. N

11 SOW 3.2 WHO Analytics In addition to analytics, does the WHO require access to a media contact database allowing WHO staff to both research and contact critical journalists on demand? No N

12 SOW 3.2.2 Social Media Analytics We note that Social Media Analytics are listed separately from WHO Analytics (Traditional media). Would it be preferable that the successful contractor can provide both traditional and social media analytics within the same environment/dashboard? Preferable, but not required N

13 SOW 3.2.2 Social Media Analytics Given the nature of social media conversations, does the government require that the successful contractor provide the ability to track for an unlimited number of both keywords and results across social and traditional media (understanding that human review would be an additional cost)? Not unlimited - focused on social media posts related to news stories regarding the WH and EOP. N

15 SOW 2.0 Scope of Work Does EOP currently maintain and online subscriptions that would allow them to see news coverage that may be behind a paywall? If so, to which news outlets? Subscription access varies. News Briefings should include a link to the underlying article/content, even if it exists behind a paywall. N

16 SOW 3.1.1 Morning Edition How many EOP employees require access to the daily news summary briefing on the IP-protected website? Do the OVP and ONDCP briefings also need to be accessible on this website? Access should be provided to all EOP staff, with an expected use by at least 250+ staff. N

17 SOW 3.1.2 Midday Edition Could the government please clarify the requirement for “Television news shall include that which was actually broadcast, not only stories that appear on the websites of broadcast news outlets.” Is the intent to include online broadcasts as well as live broadcasts? No. The SOW is just clarifying that all broadcast content should be included, not only the subset of such content that can be found on a news outlet's website. N

18 SOW 3.1.2 Midday Edition The SOW states this product is due at 12pm EDT but does not clarify on which days it is delivered. Can the government confirm if the midday report is expected just on weekdays Mon-Fri but not holidays? Or is this product also expected on weekends and on federal holidays? This distinction will directly impact Offeror’s level of effort and pricing. Weekdays, excluding Federal Holidays Y 3.1.2 Midday Edition

19 SOW 3.1.3 Evening Edition The SOW states this product is due at 6pm EDT but does not clarify on which days it is delivered. Can the government confirm if the evening edition is expected just on weekdays Mon-Fri but not holidays? Or is this product also expected on weekends and on federal holidays? This distinction will directly impact Offeror’s level of effort and pricing. Weekdays, excluding Federal Holidays N, addressed in Midday Edition

20 SOW 3.1.4 Cable News Show Comparison The government states that for the cable news comparison, that “the results of this daily analysis will be displayed graphically.” Is the intent to have a table listing and summarizing key topics covered in morning broadcasts? If a chart showing trends is required, what data points are expected here? Yes - list of key topics addressed on each show and associated analysis (e.g., minutes of coverage). Flexible regarding the form of graphical representation. N

21 SOW 3.1.4 Cable News Show Comparison Would the government please provide an example of graphical analysis required in this section and/or provide additional details as to what this analysis graphic should entail? We do not have an example we can provide. We are flexible regarding the form of graphical representation, provided it contains the requested analysis of show topics and coverage. N

22 SOW 3.2.1 Analytics Dashboard The government requests a news-media analytics dashboard. Is this a visual, static product that the vendor delivers to the government?