QandA.docx

Questions and Answers for the Subscriptions Schedule

Question Is the address listed on the bid site the actual billing and shipping address for this? If not, can you please provide both the billing and shipping address?

USCIS Office of Refugee, Asylum and International Operations 124 Leroy Road Williston, VT 05495 USA"

Government Response A. "Program Office (Shipping Address) RAIO Research Management Branch 5900 Capital Gateway Drive, Suite 2100 Camp Springs MD 20588

B. Invoicing USCIS’ preferred method for invoice submission is electronically The pdf files shall be submitted electronically using the “To” line in the e-mail address to USCISInvoice.Consolidation@ice.dhs.gov with each email conforming to a size limit of 500 KB.

C. If a paper invoice is submitted, mail the invoice to:

USCIS Invoice Consolidation PO Box 1000 Williston, VT 05495

D. For the full invoicing procedures please see Part III, Section 3of the Terms and Conditions"

Question- line 28 On line 28, where you have “Taylor & Francis,” can you provide which title(s) this should include? They have a variety of packages and stand-alone titles.

Government Response Taylor & Francis offers a token system. USCIS wishes to use that system and is requesting 100 tokens per year.

Question-line 25 LA Times / Los Angeles Times - The spreadsheet indicates # of issues per year totals 26. According to our title file, Los Angeles Times is published 365 days. Can you please clarify what they require?

Government Response It appears 26 might be a typo. We are requesting access to the daily, online edition that is published 365 days.

Question-line 20 Ha’aretz - We have the “English Edition,” or “Hebrew Edition,” or a combo of “English Edition and Hebrew Edition” listed in our title file. Can you please clarify which edition they require?.

Government Response We would like the English edition.

Question line 27 Reuters - Do they need “Reuters.com - Online”?

Government Response Yes, we are requesting access to the Reuters.com online edition that is published 365 days.

Question- line 30 Diplomat - There is a title called “Diplomat - Online” that is published by Envoy Media Ltd and is Open Access. There is also “Diplomat All Access - Online” which has rates and is published by Diplomat in Arlington, VA. Are they looking for “Diplomat All Access - Online”?

Government Response We are requesting access to “Diplomat All Access – Online” which is published by Diplomat in Arlington, VA.

Question- Work task "Below it says “The Contractor is to obtain licenses to the subscriptions listed in the attachment and provide access for 10 USCIS personnel” but column E on the title list spreadsheet has different numbers for “Qty (# of Personnel w/Access). Do we need to provide prices for the specific number of users in column for each publication, or do we ignore this column and provide prices for 10 users for all the titles on the list?

Description The Contractor is to obtain licenses to the subscriptions listed in the attachment and provide access for 10 USCIS personnel (individual emails for subscription access will be provided post-award). Access information must be provided to all personnel within 7 days of subscription activation and distribution by the subscription owner.

Government Response "For subscription access we would like to maintain the number of personnel that have access based on column E, which is usually done as a group rate. In the event a group rate is not available then we would like 10 individual subscriptions for that subscription.

*Work Tasks Update: The Vendor is to obtain licenses to the subscriptions listed and provide access for USCIS personnel (individual emails for subscription accesses will be provided post-award). Access information must be provided to all personnel within 7 days of subscription activation and distribution by the subscription owner.

Question- Column E Just to confirm—the titles with “1” in Column E, should only be for 1 user, correct?

Government Response: Correct

Question-line 28 "Taylor & Francis provided us with pricing for 100 tokens but informed us that the customer has already ordered tokens via Prenax. Please see publisher’s note below:

Reply from publisher:

“I also want to give you heads up that this customer has already purchased tokens with us in the past. We have PO from Prenax but awaiting their tax exempt certificate. Please confirm with customer that this is not duplicate inquiry/order.”

This is not a duplicate order. For Taylor and Francis, it appears it was renewed in October 2025. So, it would need to be renewed in October of 2026. My understanding is the request use to be for 50 tokens and now the Program Office is looking to increase to 100.

Question- line 25 “Los Angeles Times - Online” the publisher informed us that they do not offer a group subscription for 8 users. The max amount of people they can have attached to one email is 4 users. We replied to the publisher that if they do not offer a group sub for 8 users, then the customer would like pricing for 10 individual subscriptions (per the RFQ instructions). The publisher then sent us a quote for 10 new individual orders at $259.48 per user which matches our title rate for new orders. However, our title file indicates that renewal orders would be $415.48 per order. Since the customer indicated these are renewals we went back to the publisher and asked him if the quoted price would change if the orders were renewal orders instead of new orders and was told that if they are renewals than they would need all the customer emails in order to research it further and provide renewal notices

Please move forward as if it is a new order. The order can be two groups of four which would make a total of 8 users or 10 individual users.

Question- line 23 “JSTOR-JPASS” the publisher replied: They have a renewal for their institutional subscription to JSTOR in place for 2026, and since they have that, there is no need for JPASS.

Government Response Correct we had to extend the service for JSTOR and AL-Monitor as we couldn’t lose service. If possible, please price the order for the start date for 2027.

Question-line 34 “Wall Street Journal- Online” the publisher is asking: Can you please share the email domain the subscribers will use? We use that to ensure the right salesperson is looped in. Is @uscis.dhs.gov the correct domain to provide them with?

Government Response Yes, this is the domain that will be used.

Question The publisher is now asking for the customer’s account number in order to confirm accurate pricing. The publisher was only able to locate one existing subscription that uses that email domain and it was already renewed for 10 users for a term of 11/2025 to 11/2026. There are 11 users requested on the revised spreadsheet. Do you want to supply the users list and we can confirm with Wall Street Journal to determine the user excluded? We can quote the additional user or exclude altogether if you want to go to Wall Street Journal directly to add a user.

Government Response Please move forward as if it is a new order.

Question-line 17 With respect to the Financial Times, you may or may not be aware already that they require your agency to work directly with them to provide a quote. Can you please discuss with Chris Lane @ FT and kindly give them your consent to issue a quote to us? Or, please advise on how to handle this if you are already aware of the FT being the sole source provider to the US government agencies.

Government Response I have reached out to FT to advise them to work with any vendor that contacts them about the solicitation we have posted. The order will be a new subscription.

Question Given the minor setbacks with the publishers, are you able to extend the deadline for the bid submission?

Government Response We are extending the Solicitation to February 5, 2025 @ 2pm.

Question Are you able to provide a tax-exempt certificate for the USCIS?

Per USCIS Financial Management, “There is no single document that show tax exemption. The exemption is in Article S8.C1.1.5 Intergovernmental Tax Immunity Doctrine of the U.S. Constitution. The purpose of the W-9 is to prove USCIS is a federal entity and therefore, the exemption applies.” If you would like the W-9 I can provide it.