RFI_Emergency_Deployment_and_Mobilization_Services_Amd_00001.pdf

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR)

Center for Response Office of Response Logistics (OR)

Request for Information (RFI) for

Emergency Deployment and Mobilization Services

December 23, 2024 - Amendment 00001

1.0 GENERAL INFORMATION:

1.1 The HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in support of the Center for Response, Office of Response Logistics, is conducting a market survey to identify solutions capable of deploying groups of mobilized HHS Responders to various types of small- and large-scale events. Below is sample of the type of events requiring support:

• Global pandemics

• Natural and manmade disasters

• Large readiness exercises

• Relief and emergency efforts

• Continuity of Operations (COOP) events

• National Special Security Events (such as the Presidential Inauguration, political conventions, and dignitary visits)

The intent of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather information from industry about what approaches and capabilities exist to provide this capability, which ASPR may use in the formulation of upcoming contract requirements.

1.2 This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future.

This request for information does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, HHS is not seeking proposals at this time and will not accept unsolicited proposals.

Respondents are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on the SAM.gov. It is the responsibility of the potential offerors to monitor these sites for additional information pertaining to this requirement.

2.0 PROPRIETARY INFORMATION AND DISCLAIMERS:

Respondents shall identify any proprietary information in its RFI response. Information submitted in response to this RFI will be used at the discretion of the Government. Further, the information submitted will remain confidential insofar as permitted by law, including the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts. ASPR reserves the right to utilize any non-proprietary technical information in the anticipated PWS or solicitation. Although it is not necessary to address in their response, respondents shall be aware of any potential, actual, or perceived organizational conflicts of interests. Any real or potential conflicts must be sufficiently mitigated prior to a contract award. For further guidance, refer to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, Part 9.5.

NAICS CODE: 624230

PRODUCT SERVICE CODE (PSC): R429, Emergency Response/Disaster Planning/Preparedness Support https://sam.gov/content/home

3.0 BACKGROUND:

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) helps the United States prepare for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies and disasters to include other National Security Special Events (NSSE) of significant importance. This critical mission entails sending medical, veterinary, mortuary, and behavioral health responders to areas in crisis or emergencies. Typically, when ASPR is required to respond to such events, the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) is activated. The mission of the NDMS is to supplement our nation's public health and medical resources through specialized teams that are highly skilled in providing human and veterinary healthcare, mortuary assistance and postmortem identification, patient movement coordination, logistics, and definitive care to include command and control during special events, emergencies, and disasters. ASPR response and recovery operations may also require rostering, mobilization, and travel of other responders including ASPR employees, federal employees of other federal agencies, or deployed officers of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps.

During such events, ASPR is required to quickly deploy emergency response personnel to a designated location and must quickly arrange for commercial lodging, travel, and lease or rental vehicles in an evolving fast-paced response environment (24/7/365) based on the deployment roster information provided from HHS entities mobilizing personnel for deployment. Deploying personnel may be required to travel from one location or many mobilization locations by various means of transportation to a designated location;

and upon arrival at the designated location must have lodging and lease or rental ground transportation synchronized and readily available for use by personnel to conduct operations for up to 60-days. Typically, during an emergency, this type of deployment and mobilization must take place within 12-24 hours after notice from the HHS Secretary Operations Center, Incident Support Team. ASPR is pursuing this critical service because ASPR’s rapid deployment and mobilization requirements are not compatible with the traditional (steady state) federal travel services, and in many cases the Department’s federally contracted travel management company is not structured to process such bulk travel (roster) requests and seamlessly synchronize deployment requirements. Another confounding issue is the e-Government Travel System (ETS) relies on self-service travel system proficiency and ASPR’s responder community are made up of intermittent federal employees that deploy very infrequently and are challenged to maintain a self-service travel model as well as federal interagency partners and deployed USPHS Officers.

2.2 Period of Performance: TBD

2.3 Contract Type: TBD

2.4 Security Requirements: TBD

2.0 SCENARIO/REQUESTED INFORMATION:

Within the next 12 months, ASPR is considering procuring emergency deployment and mobilization contract services to provide the below services. ASPR is seeking information about what solutions currently exist in the market to provide the below services to rapidly mobilize transportation and lodging resources for deploying HHS/ASPR responders. A critical component of this requirement is for the vendor to provide reimbursable commercial services and provide a call center or “hot line” like structure that facilitate travel inquiries, itinerary changes, and emergency rebooking from traveling responders or designate government officials to ensure timely arrival to the response or event.

A sample deployment scenario is as follows: ASPR needs to deploy approximately 104 responders from various cities to Puerto Rico for a response. ASPR notifies the vendor on Friday at 5pm of the requirement. Personnel need to have lodging, conference space at the same hotel and transportation arranged and procured. These activities must be synchronized and completed by Saturday, 9pm. All responders will require immediate ticketed itineraries and/or travel arrangements secured based on the HHS provided personnel rosters within 6-12 hours of submission. Bulk lodging will be required to ensure responders are lodged in the same location. In addition, responders will require 17 high-profile (self-operated) vehicles (SUVs, Cargo Trucks, etc.) to support ground transportation operations. The vendor is also expected to provide ASPR a Situation Report (SITREP) every two hours on progress of completing the task. It should be noted that speed and efficiency is critical to the success of the deployment as these resources during an emergency (austere) environment are limited and in high demand.

No Responders

From

To

Lodging

Travel

Ground Transportation

104 NY – 10

FL – 37

TX – 37

DC - 20

San Juan Puerto Rico

Rooms/Beds

Economy Class Air

10 SUVs 5 Box Trucks 3 15-Pax Vans

Note: Many other capability configurations could have supported this requirement. This is just an example.

Table 1 HHS Personnel Roster (example)

Emergency Lodging:

This capability requires rapidly booking or acquiring reimbursable commercial lodging for responders.

Emergency accommodations will encompass the full range of safe, clean, commercial housing optional services for both CONUS (Contiguous United States) and OCONUS (defined as Alaska, Hawaii, U.S.

territories [U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands]) and International/Foreign Areas (defined as Canada). Lodging and/or housing may include but is not limited to hotels/motels; dormitories, group quarters; cruise ships and recreational vessels; seasonal commercial recreational camps; corporate lodging facilities; and community lodging or housing facilities.

Transportation Services:

This capability requires rapidly procuring commercial reimbursable rental and lease (responder operated) high-profile vehicle assets to support emergency response movement operations. The vehicle class for this requirement includes SUVs, refrigerated and non-refrigerated box trucks, passenger vans, cargo vans, or recreational vehicles. Services may be required in CONUS (Contiguous United States), and OCONUS (defined as Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. territories [U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands]) and International/Foreign Areas (defined as Canada).

Travel:

This capability requires rapidly procuring commercial reimbursable transportation by air (plane or helicopter), bus, sealift, or rail. The government will provide personnel deployment rosters to the vendor and (within a limited timeframe), these rosters must be quickly processed as a travel requirement. Roster processing and transportation ticketing (if applicable) should occur within the below timeframes. Priority for this service should be typical commercial transportation before consideration of charter services.

Services may be required in CONUS (Contiguous United States), and OCONUS (defined as Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. territories [U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands]) and International/Foreign Areas (defined as Canada).

Travelers Timeline <50 <2 hours 51-100 <4 hours 101-200 <6 hours 201-400 <8 hours 301-500 <10 hours 501+ <12 hours

4.0 RFI RESPONSE SUBMITTAL INSTRUCTIONS:

Respondents shall submit a white paper response electronically to Shayla Kelley, Contract Specialist, at shayla.kelley@hhs.gov no later than 3:00PM Eastern Standard Time (EST), Tuesday, January 14, 2025. Questions regarding this RFI are due no later than Friday, December 20, 2024.

“RFI Response for Emergency Deployment and Mobilization Services, shall be in the subject line of your e-mail. All responses shall be unclassified, with proprietary information clearly marked. The document format shall be either Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) formats. Pages shall be 8.5 by 11 inch and shall use a type pitch that is no smaller than a standard 11-point font type, with the exception of charts, graphs, or tables, which shall use a pitch not smaller than 10-point font.

Responses shall not exceed 20 pages in length including images, data displays, charts, graphs, and tables.

Page limitation does not include: 1 cover page. Do not include promotional materials.

RFI Responses shall include the following information in the order below:

A. Cover Page with the following information:

1. Company Name

2. Company Address

3. Unique Entity Identifier, as registered in www.sam.gov.

4. Company Point of Contact - Name, Title, Phone, and Email address

5. Statement of current business size status (i.e., HUBZone small business concern, service-disabled veteran-owned small business firm, 8(a) contractor, woman-owned small business, small business, or large business concern).

6. Provide your business size for the NAICS code of 624230.

7. What strategic sourcing vehicles (SSVs), government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs), indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQs) contracts, or other contract vehicles are you a part of that are relevant to our requirement?

8. Do you have a facility security clearance?

B. Contractor Capability

1. Summarization of relevant projects showing capabilities

2. Past performance in applicable areas

3. Response to issues addressed in Section 2.0 Scenario/Requested Information of this RFI.

C. Contractor RFI Responses to questions mailto:shayla.kelley@hhs.gov

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) QUESTIONS:

Please answer the following questions and include responses with your submission:

1. Can your company provide this solution on your own or would you partner/subcontract with another company? Do you have an existing relationship in place, or would you need to establish this with a potential partner/subcontract?

2. Have you provided similar services of similar scope and across a similarly wide-ranging geographic area?

3. Do you have any concerns about this requirement, which if not addressed, may adversely impact your decision to bid on this requirement?

5.0 DISCUSSIONS

ASPR representatives may or may not choose to meet with potential offerors. Such discussions would only be intended to get further clarification of potential capability to meet the requirements, especially any development and certification risks.

6.0 SUMMARY

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only to identify sources that can provide emergency deployment and mobilization services requirements. The information provided in the RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. ASPR has not made a commitment to procure any of the items discussed, and release of this RFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.