A04_SOW.pdf

BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS

COMMENT PROCESSING SUPPORT SERVICES

STATEMENT OF WORK

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Indian Gaming (Office) requires assistance processing high volumes of comments on fee-to-trust for gaming applications. The objective is to provide standardized review, categorization, ‘snippeting’ as appropriate, summarization, and response to comments received from the public, Tribal, State, and Local governments on fee-to-trust gaming applications during public review periods. This will be a project-by-project workload for applications with exceptionally voluminous comments.

The Office is the primary advisor to the Secretary and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs on Indian gaming and the requirements of Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (IGRA), 25 U.S.C.

§ 2701, et. seq. The Office is also responsible for furnishing technical advice and assistance to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), including field staff, and to tribal councils and their officers on all gaming-related activities and actions under the oversight of the Department and the BIA.

The Office duties and responsibilities include the review and analysis of the statutory and regulatory requirements of IGRA and related statutes, policy development, records management, and technical assistance to tribal and state stakeholders. Specifically, the Office reviews and prepares decisions for: tribal-state compacts, secretarial procedures, revenue allocation plans, land acquisition applications, gaming eligibility determination applications, and applications for two-part determinations required under Section 20(b)(1)(A) of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

(IGRA).

Due to the statutory, regulatory, and litigation deadlines associated with these tasks, the Office requires an experienced contractor with an understanding of the related processes of acquiring land in trust for gaming purposes including the Department’s fee-to-trust process (25 CFR Part 151), gaming eligibility determination process (25 CFR Part 292), and the National Environmental Policy Act compliance process and comment periods associated with each. The contractor must display extensive working knowledge of the principles, practices, and concepts of Indian gaming that includes knowledge of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936, the Alaska Native Reorganization Act of 1936, the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act and related amendments, Public Law 83-280, the Johnson Gambling Devices Act 15 U.S.C. § 1171 et seq., and the Department’s implementing regulations in 25 C.F.R. Parts 151, 162, and 290-293. The contractor must also have experience processing high volume public comments received during public comment periods on fee-to-trust applications, NEPA compliance, or Departmental rule making.

PROGRAM SUPPORT ASSISTANT/Comment Processing

The Government requires a contractor, who will perform the support services listed below on a project-by-project basis as assigned for the organization and its programs. Specific duties follow:

Task 1 – prepare a comment log of comments received including the identity of the commenter, ‘snippet’ sub-comments from larger comment letters or transcripts, identify type of comment

(151, 292, or NEPA), and organize comments by subject (e.g. NEPA – economic impact or traffic impact).

Task 2 – prepare summary of comments received including total number of commenters, comments by type and organization, as well as support, opposition, or technical NEPA comment with brief summaries of key comment themes. As appropriate compare comments received to previous comments on the specific application and other similar applications.

Task 3 – in coordination with the Office of Indian Gaming and relevant BIA Regional Offices prepare ‘standardized’ responses as appropriate for comments received by type and commenter.

CONTRACTOR DELIVERABLES

Start within 2 weeks after the award.

Weekly Reports. The Contractor shall deliver an email weekly report on the progress of assigned tasks to the Director or their designee by Friday at 4:00pm EST.

Monthly Reports. The Contractor shall deliver a monthly written report on the progress of assigned tasks to the Director on the last Friday of the month before 4:00 p.m. EST.

Travel and incidental expenses. No travel is expected as part of this contract.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

1) Space. It is anticipated that most work will be performed remotely by the contractor or their staff and the Government will not provide work space.

2) The contractor will provide all staffing and equipment necessary to perform the work.

Contract Term

This is a one year project by project contract blanket purchase agreement fixed price contract, with four additional option years, for a total duration including the exercise of any options of up to five years.

This contract commences upon May 1, 2024 or award whichever is earlier and terminates on April 30, 2025, or one calendar year after award, whichever comes later, at the close of business.

During the period of performance, the Government expects to fund at a minimum of 3 projects but may fund up to 10 depending on workload needs and volume of comments on specific applications.

For the contract the fixed price will be a Not to Exceed (NTE) amount based on a maximum of 10 projects, calculated by using pricing of the higher volume projects. Contractors shall provide two pricing breakdowns:

One price for projects with less than 250 commenters (written or transcript) – Lower volume projects

One price for projects with more than 250 commenters but less than 350 commenters – Higher volume projects *The Government expects to received comments from less than 350 commenters during most comment periods. In the event the Department receives more than 350 comments on a specific comment period the contractor will negotiate in good faith a reasonable price for processing those comments based on volume and content of comments received.

OFFICE SCHEDULE

The Contractor shall hire personnel to meet all project requirements. Projects will be completed in a timely manner with regular status updates as specified above.