Sol_1305M326Q0305_Amd_0001.pdf

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods:

(a) By completing items 8 and 15, and returning or (c) By separate letter or electronic communication which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment you desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by letter or electronic communication, provided each letter or electronic communication makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

E. IMPORTANT: is not is required copies to the issuing office.

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT 1. CONTRACT ID CODE

2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION NUMBER 3. EFFECTIVE DATE 4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQUISITION NUMBER 5. PROJECT NUMBER (If applicable)

7.ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 6) CODE

STANDARD FORM 30 (REV. 11/2016)

Prescribed by GSA FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

FACILITY CODE

9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NUMBER

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NUMBER

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. is extended. is not extended.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA (If required) copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted;

13. THIS ITEM APPLIES ONLY TO MODIFICATIONS OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS.

IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NUMBER AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

CHECK ONE A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE CONTRACT ORDER

NUMBER IN ITEM 10A.

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES (such as changes in paying office, appropriation data, etc.) SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER (Specify type of modification and authority)

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

15C. DATE SIGNED

15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print)

16C. DATE SIGNED

16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

PAGE

6. ISSUED BY CODE

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR (Number, street, county, State and ZIP Code) (X)

CODE

15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR

(Signature of person authorized to sign)

16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

(Signature of Contracting Officer)

Previous edition unusable

PAGESOF

Contractor

The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers to sign this document and return

AMANDA ROSSITER

See continuation page

WAD-NMFS-Seattle

7600 SAND POINT WAY NE BLDG 1

SEATTLE WA 98115

WAD-NMFS-S

1305M326Q0305

07/21/2026

07/10/2026

1 9

Amendment 0001 to Solicitation 1305M326Q0305 is issued to:

1. Provide responses to vendor questions received by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on July 20, 2026.

Questions and answers are listed below.

2. Provide revisions to the Performance Work Statement and Attachment D. Revisions are indicated in red font and strikethrough.

3. The due date for receipt of quotations remains unchanged at 5:00 PM Eastern on July 27, 2026.

4. All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.

Vendor Questions and Answers:

1. Participant reimbursements and invoicing. Please confirm how the payment process under CLIN 0002 is intended to work. Is the contractor to pay participants first and then seek reimbursement through IPP, or may the contractor submit approved participant reimbursements through IPP before paying the participants, provided the participant payments are made within 30 days of the IPP submission?

Answer: Please see PWS Section 3.3, Payment Processing and Reimbursement Administration;

Attachment D, Sections 3 and 5; and CLINs x002. The Contractor is not required to advance participant reimbursement payments using its own funds. The Government will approve the applicable participant reimbursement amounts, and the Contractor may invoice NOAA under CLINs x002. Following receipt of the applicable funds from NOAA, the Contractor will disburse the approved reimbursement amounts to the participants.

2. Reimbursement processing timeline. Please confirm that the 30-day period begins once the contractor has received both complete documentation and all required Government approvals, and that time lapsed for missing documentation or Government approval will not count against the contractor’s performance standard.

Answer: Please see PWS Section 3.3, Payment Processing and Reimbursement Administration, and

Attachment D, Section 7, Processing Timeframes. The Contractor’s 30-calendar-day period begins once the Contractor has received all required reimbursement documentation and Government approval of the reimbursement request.

3. Participant agreements. Please clarify who the parties to the Attachment A Participant Agreement will be. Will the agreement be between the Government and the vessel participant, with the contractor handling administration and payment, or will the contractor be expected to enter into the agreement directly with each participant?

Answer: Please see PWS Section 3.2, Participant Onboarding and Administrative Setup, and Attachment A, Study Fleet Participant Agreement. The Contractor will coordinate the participant onboarding process, collect and maintain the required documentation, and obtain Government approval before an agreement is finalized or reimbursement processing begins. Attachment A will be completed and signed by the applicable vessel owner and operator or operators. The Government will retain program oversight and approval authority.

4. Transition of existing participants. The PWS explains that this new requirement will consolidate approximately 40 existing vessel agreements into a centralized administrative support contract. Please clarify what participant information and documentation the Government will provide to the contractor at award, including existing agreements, contact information, payment records, EFT information, and tax documentation. Will the contractor be expected to build new administrative files and obtain newly executed Attachments A, B, and C from all existing participants, or may any current Government records and agreements carry forward?

Answer: Please see PWS Section 1.0, Background; Section 3.2, Participant Onboarding and Administrative Setup; and Section 3.4, Coordination and Administrative Support. At award, the Government will provide the Contractor with a list of current participants and available existing administrative records. The Contractor will be responsible for coordinating the transition, collecting or verifying the required information, and ensuring that participant records are current, complete, and maintained in accordance with the PWS.

Current participants will transition to the new agreements and complete the applicable required attachments. Available prior Attachment B forms may be provided for reference and verification.

5. Historical reimbursement volume. To help develop an accurate staffing and administrative price, we ask that the Government provide the total participant reimbursement expenditures for the most recent one or two program years. It would also be helpful to know the approximate number of reimbursement transactions processed each quarter and the typical number of participants receiving payments during a quarterly payment cycle.

Answer: Please see the Historical Program Information included in RFO 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Products and Commercial Services. (SEP 2023) (Deviation JAN 2026), Attachment A, Section 4.0, Performance Measurement and Payment, and Attachment D. The Government currently supports approximately 35–40 active Study Fleet participants.

Historically, reimbursements have generally been processed quarterly for approximately 95–100% of active participants, typically resulting in approximately one reimbursement transaction per participant during each quarterly payment cycle.

Under the new requirement, reimbursements will continue to be paid quarterly but will be calculated based on the Government-approved daily reimbursement rate and the number of eligible participation days. Historical information is provided for quotation preparation purposes only and does not guarantee future workload, reimbursement amounts, or program activity.

6. Place of performance. This vendor anticipates performing the administrative work from our office in Hingham, Massachusetts. Please confirm that this is acceptable and that the contract does not require a regularly recurring on-site presence.

Answer: No on-site presence is needed

7. PII and shared workspace requirements. The contractor will handle sensitive participant information, including W-9s and EFT/payment information. In addition to RFO 52.240-93, PWS Section 6, and any required NDA, are there any specific NOAA or Department of Commerce security, privacy, access-control, encryption, records-management, incident-reporting, or system-authorization requirements that will apply? Please also confirm whether the Government will provide the Google Drive workspace referenced in PWS Table 1, Item 4, or whether the contractor will be responsible for providing a government-accessible Google Workspace.

Answer: All security and privacy requirements for this contract are included either in full text or by reference in the solicitation and will be included in the final contract, and quoters must ensure their systems and procedures can successfully meet these requirements. There are no additional requirements. The Government will share Google Drive workspace.

8. We anticipate proposing Dallas, Dallas County, Texas as the primary place of performance. Please provide or incorporate the applicable Service Contract Labor Standards wage determination for Dallas County.

Answer: The applicable Wage Determination(s) will be incorporated into the contract upon award based on the successful quoter's place(s) of performance. If you would like to review a Wage Determination prior to the solicitation response due date, they are publicly available on SAM.gov.

9. Please confirm that the administrative support services may be performed remotely from the contractor’s proposed place of performance, provided personnel remain available during NOAA’s normal Eastern Time business hours.

Answer: Please see the response to Question 6.

10. The Standard Form 18 indicates that the RFQ is not a small-business set-aside, while Section 1 states that the acquisition is 100% set aside for small business concerns. Please confirm the correct designation.

Answer: This requirement is 100% set aside for small business, as indicated on the SF18 form and in

Section 1.

11.At contract transition, will NOAA provide complete electronic administrative files for the approximately 35–40 existing Study Fleet participants, or should the contractor anticipate recollecting and recreating the required onboarding documentation?

Answer: Please see the response to Question 4.

12.Approximately how many reimbursement requests and individual participant payments were processed during the most recent 12-month period?

Answer: Please see the response to Question 5. Approximately 105 individual participant payments were processed during the most recent 12-month period.

13.For CLIN 0002, may the contractor submit an invoice to NOAA after the reimbursement request has been validated and approved by the Government, but before payment is issued to the participant?

Answer: Yes. Please see the response to Question 1.

14.Will sufficient funds be obligated and available under CLIN 0002 before the contractor is required to issue approved participant reimbursements?

Answer: Please see CLINs x002 and PWS Section 2.0, Scope, which require participant reimbursements to be administered in accordance with Government-approved procedures and funding limitations. Participant reimbursements will only be approved and processed when sufficient funds are obligated and available under CLINs x002. The Contractor shall not issue payments in excess of the funds obligated and available under that CLIN.

15.May the firm-fixed-price administration CLIN be invoiced in equal monthly installments?

Answer: Yes, the firm-fixed-price administration CLIN may be invoiced in equal monthly installments.

16. Place of Performance / Wage Determination, the solicitation permits the contractor to propose the place of performance, and the two support positions are expected to perform remotely. How will the applicable Service Contract Act wage determination be established for employees performing remotely, and will the Government accept the contractor's principal office as the contractual place of performance? If a wage determination for an additional locality is required, we ask that it be identified so it can be incorporated prior to the due date.

Answer: Please see the response to Question 8. The applicable Wage Determination is based on the physical location where the covered labor is performed, and more than one Wage Determination may apply when employees perform covered work from different locations.

17. Transaction Volume, to size the support team appropriately, what is the approximate annual number of reimbursement requests and payment transactions across the participant population, and are those requests concentrated in particular quarters or seasons?

Answer: Please see the responses to Questions 5 and 12. Approximately 105 individual participant payments were processed during the most recent 12-month period, and transaction volume generally remained steady throughout the year.

18. Evaluated Price, for price evaluation, are the Government-established reimbursement amounts (the participant payment CLINs) included in the total evaluated price, or is the evaluation limited to the contractor's administrative support pricing?

Answer: Please see the solicitation’s price quotation and evaluation requirements and the contract line-item schedule. The total evaluated price includes the firm-fixed-price administration CLINs and the Government-established not-to-exceed amounts for the participant reimbursement CLINs, including all option periods.

19. Reimbursement Funding, under the reimbursement terms at 52.212-4 Alternate I, will funds for the participant reimbursement CLINs be obligated and available for the contractor to draw before participant payments are due, or is the contractor expected to advance those payments from its own working capital pending reimbursement? We ask in light of the incremental funding terms in the solicitation.

Answer: Please see the responses to Questions 1 and 14. The Contractor will not be required to advance participant reimbursement payments from its own funds.

20. Payment Timeline, the 30-day payment standard appears in several places in the PWS, the reimbursement procedures, and the Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan. Does the 30-day period begin upon the contractor's initial receipt of a reimbursement request, or upon receipt of complete documentation and all required Government approvals?

Answer: Please see the response to Question 2.

21. Can the Government clarify the payment process for participant reimbursements? Specifically, is the contractor expected to advance reimbursement payments to Study Fleet participants and subsequently invoice the Government for reimbursement, or will the Government provide advance funding or another payment mechanism to cover participant reimbursements prior to disbursement?

Answer: Please see the response to Question 1.

22. Is there a current incumbent? If so, are they eligible to rebid?

Answer: No, this is a new requirement.

23. Are there any existing payment tracking systems, databases, or other administrative tools that the successful contractor will inherit as part of the transition?

Answer: No, due to this being a new requirement.

24. What is the estimated annual and average monthly volume of participant reimbursement transactions?

Answer: Please see the response to Question 12. Approximately 105 individual participant payments were processed during the most recent 12-month period, averaging approximately nine (9) payments per month.

25. Will NOAA provide the Government-accessible shared Google workspace and reporting templates, or is the contractor expected to develop and maintain these?

Answer: Please see PWS Table 1, Item 4. The Government will provide access to the

Government-accessible shared Google Drive workspace. The Contractor will be responsible for developing and maintaining the required reporting templates.

26. Could the Government please clarify the basis for award, including relative importance of technical approach, past performance, and price? Specifically, will award be made on a Lowest Price Technically Acceptable basis or using a best-value tradeoff?

Answer: Please see RFO 52.212-2, Evaluation—Commercial Products and Commercial Services.

Award will be made to the responsible quoter whose quotation is determined to be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. This acquisition is not being conducted on a lowest-price-technically-acceptable basis.

27. What is the expected Government turnaround time for reimbursement approvals?

Answer: The Government has not established a fixed turnaround time for reimbursement approvals.

Approval time will depend on receipt of complete and accurate reimbursement documentation. The Government will review complete submissions as promptly as practicable.

28. Does the 30-day reimbursement processing requirement begin upon the contractor’s receipt of complete reimbursement documentation or after Government approval of the reimbursement request?

Answer: Please see the response to Question 20.

29. To ensure accurate staffing and pricing, could the Government clarify whether the Project Manager is required to be a full-time dedicated resource or whether the Project Manager may support multiple contracts provided they remain available during normal business hours (Monday-Friday, Eastern Time) and meet all contract requirements?

Answer: The Project Manager may support multiple contracts.

30. The PWS states that the Project Manager is expected to attend Government meetings as required.

Could the Government clarify whether these meetings are expected to be conducted virtually or in person? If in person, please identify the anticipated meeting location(s), the expected frequency of meetings, and whether travel costs (if required) should be proposed as a separate travel CLIN or included in the Firm-Fixed Price administrative services CLIN.

Answer: Virtual meetings are sufficient for all required project meetings. Meeting frequency will be determined based on project needs and coordination between the Contractor and the Government.

No regularly recurring in-person meetings or associated travel are anticipated.

31. The solicitation requires submission of resumes as part of the technical quotation. Could the Government clarify whether there are any minimum education, certification, or experience requirements for the proposed Project Manager or other contractor personnel that will be evaluated?

Answer: No, the Government has not established specific minimum requirements for proposed personnel. However, the proposed candidates must possess the necessary skills, capabilities, and experience to perform all required tasks outlined in the Performance Work Statement. The Government will evaluate the submitted resumes to assess the experience and qualifications of the proposed personnel.

32. The solicitation is subject to the Service Contract Labor Standards (SCLS); however; the anticipated place(s) of performance and expected labor classifications are not identified. Could the Government clarify the anticipated place(s) of performance and identify the anticipated labor classifications that offerors should use in preparing their quotations?

Answer: Please see the responses to Questions 8 and 16. Quoters shall identify their proposed place or places of performance and determine which labor classifications most closely align with their proposed staffing and technical approach.

33. Section 52.212-2 lists four evaluation factors but does not state their relative importance, nor does it clarify whether non-price factors combined are more or less important than price. Please clarify the relative order of importance of the evaluation factors.

Answer: Please see the response to Question 26.

34. Are there any page limits or formatting requirements for the technical and price quotes?

Answer: The solicitation does not establish page limits for the technical or price quotation. Quoters should submit sufficiently detailed information to address all solicitation requirements.