283-24-0673_sole_source_intent_notice.pdf

PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE (NOTICE OF INTENT) SYNOPSIS

INTRODUCTION

THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE (NOTICE OF INTENT) SYNOPSIS TO AWARD A CONTRACT OR PURCHASE ORDER WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL OR OPEN COMPETITION (INCLUDING BRAND-

NAME).

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA), Division of Contract Management (DCM) on behalf of the National Mental Health and Substance Use Policy Laboratory (NMHSUPL) intends to negotiate and award a purchase order without providing for full and open competition (Including brand-name) to CQ Roll Call Inc. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20004 for Legislative and Congressional News and Analysis Subscription.

NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE

The intended procurement is classified under NAICS code 513120, Periodical Publishers, with a Size Standard of 1000 employees.

REGULATORY AUTHORITY

The resultant contract will include all applicable provisions and clauses in effect through the Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 5024-05, effective 05/22/2024.

This acquisition is conducted under the procedures as prescribed in FAR subpart 13—Simplified Acquisition Procedures and FAR subpart 12—Acquisition of Commercial Items at an amount not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold ($250,000).

STATUTORY AUTHORITY

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13— Simplified Acquisition Procedures, Subpart 13.106-1 (b) (1), Soliciting from a single source and is not expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold. Contracts awarded using FAR Part 13— Simplified Acquisition Procedures are exempt from the requirements of FAR Part 6—Competition Requirements.

DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT

The objective of this requirement is for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), National Mental Health and Substance Use Policy Laboratory (NMHSUPL) to acquire subscriptions to legislative and congressional news and analysis service. This service will provide SAMHSA with unlimited access to essential information on Congressional activity, including in-depth legislative news, analysis, and data. This access is critical for SAMHSA to fulfill its role and mission effectively, ensuring that pertinent SAMHSA staff in the Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA), Office of

Financial Resources (OFR), and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) stay informed on policy developments and legislative actions relevant to their work.

Background SAMHSA’s legislative affairs and budget staff play a crucial role in managing the agency's interactions with Congress. Their efforts include advocating for policies and funding that support mental health and substance use programs, providing technical assistance and expert insights to inform legislative decisions, and preparing SAMHSA officials for congressional testimonies and briefings. They monitor and analyze proposed legislation and appropriations to assess their impact on SAMHSA’s initiatives, ensure compliance with legislative reporting requirements, and collaborate on policy and budget development to advance the agency’s goals. These activities help secure the necessary support and funding for SAMHSA’s programs, addressing key behavioral health challenges nationwide.

Purpose and Objectives The purpose of this acquisition is to obtain seven (7) subscriptions to CQ Roll Call Federal, a legislative and congressional news and analysis service. This subscription will provide SAMHSA with unlimited access to essential information on Congressional activity, including in-depth legislative news, analysis, and data. This access is critical for SAMHSA to fulfill its role and mission effectively, ensuring that pertinent SAMHSA staff in the Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA), Office of Financial Resources (OFR), and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) stay informed on policy developments and legislative actions relevant to their work.

Anticipated Period of Performance The contract will be firm- fixed price.

Annual subscription access will be delivered electronically within five (5) business days after award of contract.

Base Year: 12 Months Option Year 1: 12 Months Option Year 2: 12 Months Option Year 3: 12 Months Option Year 4: 12 Months

Project Description Salient characteristics:

The vendor shall provide a subscription service with the following minimum saliet characteristics:

• Unlimited access to the subscription

• Legislative tracking and policy analysis platform that provides information on federal legislation and congressional activities

• Nonpartisan and objective legislative reporting analysis, and tracking covering Congress

• Side-by-side bill comparison

• Tracking tool for Congressional event schedules

• Legislation and regulation tracking tools

• Legislative analyses

• Policy analysis

• Track relevant bills

• Customizable tracking of committee activity

Quantity:

Annual subscription access for seven (7) unique users.

Other Important Considerations

• The Contractor shall provide the following tools, sources, and services:

• Congressional Insights & Analysis including but not limited to news, newsletters, news feed, morning briefing newsletter, Today at a Glance, schedules, magazine, and daybook extra.

• Issue Specific Databases including but not limited to budget/appropriations + newsletter and health + newsletters.

• Congressional Members & Staff Profiles.

• Enhanced Government Documents & Archives. Bill Text, Bill Compare, CRS Bill Digests, Committee Reports, Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Public Law Text & U.S. Code.

• Legislative Tracking Sources. BillTrack, Committee Markup Coverage, Hearings and Rosters, Amendment Text, Floor Votes, Custom Bill and Vote Reports, House, Senate, Hot Docs, CRS Reports, Bill Analysis, Floor Video, LawTrack, and Archives.

• Congressional Transcripts & Testimony including but not limited to Congressional Hearing, Newsmaker and Financial Transcripts, Committee Testimony, and Complimentary Custom Transcript Requests.

• Account Management. IOS| Android Apps and complimentary training and support.

CONTRACTING WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL OR OPEN COMPETITION (INCLUDING BRAND-NAME)

DETERMINATION

The determination by the Government to award a contract without providing for full and open competition is based upon the following.

CQ Roll Call is a resource for the federal government, offering essential intelligence and legislative analysis and tracking tools. It provides timely news, objective facts, and comprehensive analysis of legislation and federal legislative activities. A subscription to CQ Roll Call includes in-depth legislative tracking, Congressional hearing and markup coverage, real-time alerts, daily newsletters, extensive legislative issue analysis, and a suite of user-friendly issue tracking tools. This makes it an invaluable asset for staying informed and effective in the dynamic policy and legislative landscape.

For more than a decade, SAMHSA, particularly its Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA), has depended upon CQ Roll Call for tracking congressional activities and analyzing legislation. OLA uses the product daily and it has served them well. Moreover, the OLA team has invested considerable time and effort in mastering the intricacies of this product, which has improved the ease and efficiency with which they perform their duties. CQ Roll Call’s service is customizable to each individual user, and OLA staff have worked to optimize their personal profiles for their portfolio. Disrupting this well-established routine would be highly detrimental to OLA’s work.

Additionally, the burden of transitioning to a new service provider would be considerable. The process of integrating a new system involves training on a new system, potential downtime, and errors in transition. Given the current effectiveness of our existing CQ relationship, as well as the staff resources that have already been committed to customizing CQ Roll Call’s services, moving to a new service would be burdensome.

CLOSING STATEMENT

This synopsis is not a request for competitive proposals. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this notice. Responses to this notice shall contain sufficient information to establish the interested parties’ bona-fide capabilities for fulfilling the requirement and include: unit price, list price, shipping and handling costs, the delivery period after contract award, the prompt payment discount terms, the F.O.B. Point (Destination or Origin), the SAM UEI #, the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov.”

A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The information received will normally be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to proceed on a non-competitive basis or to conduct a competitive procurement.

All responses must be received by 08/22/2024 12:00 PM EST. Responses must be submitted via email to Arun Mathur at arun.mathur@samhsa.hhs.gov.

All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency.

http://www.sam.gov/ mailto:arun.mathur@samhsa.hhs.gov