Clarificaton of FedRAMP Requirements.docx

This is a clarification notice regarding FedRAMP requirements for the Unified Discovery and Disclosure (UDD) Platform acquisition. The Department of Veterans Affairs Technology Acquisition Center Austin has issued policy guidance that eliminates the requirement for existing FedRAMP certification as a precondition for offerors to compete for or receive award on this solicitation. Instead, security and authorization requirements will be satisfied through compliance with NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 (and updated Rev 5.2.0 controls), VA Directive 6500, and VA Handbook 6500.6 Appendix C. The clarification emphasizes that this change does not waive any VA security, privacy, or authorization requirements; systems must still complete VA's Assessment & Authorization process and receive a determination for operating within VA's environment before becoming operational. The stated revisions will be formally incorporated into the upcoming solicitation documents.

The related RFI (Solicitation Number 36C10B26Q0637) has been extended multiple times, with the current close date set for August 3, 2026 at 11:00 am ET. Questions, responses, and clarification requests have been posted to the record. This pre-solicitation phase precedes the formal solicitation release for the UDD Platform project.