Congressional-Legislative Info and News-71311120Q0007.doc

71311120Q0007

Congressional-Legislative and Budget Tracking and News Services Overview and Requirements C. 1 Overview:

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), an agency of the U.S. federal government, requires access to current nonpartisan coverage of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. budget, as well as the ability to track legislation. We are looking for a service to provide this information in three different formats: 1) daily newsletters covering congressional/legislative/appropriation issues, 2) daily customized email news alerts on select congressional/legislative/appropriation topics and 3) access to an internet website that expands on the daily newsletters/news alerts, providing access to a rich news/legislative archive, legislative tracking tools and related congressional/legislative materials and analysis. The service we select must be able to provide all three of these aspects in a single, comprehensive package.

Among the approximately 350 OPIC employees on staff, only a small percentage have a need for this type of information. The user base for legislative/congressional information consists of the following:

· Core users (7-10 users) who will use the service on a daily or weekly basis. This group needs both password access (for customizable features) and, if available, general internet access to the service.

· Casual users (up to 5 users) who need general internet access periodically depending on the project they are working on. Over the course of a year, this user group is dynamic, with new individuals replacing other members throughout the subscription period. Ideally, this group needs access through IP address recognition. Normally users in this group would access the data one or two times a month.

This solicitation is for a five (5) year period – One (1) Base Year, beginning 2/1/20, and four (4) option years.

This solicitation will result in a firm fixed price award.

Requirements are listed below for the system as a whole, the newsletters/news alerts, and the internet website.

Information that is mandatory for you to include in your proposal is marked by an arrow (. Please make sure that all mandatory information is included in your final proposal.

The pricing plan submitted with the proposal must include:

· Cost of the basic level of access accompanied by a listing of all content that makes up the basic plan for 7-10 core users and 5 casual users.

· Breakout of any content add-ons outside the basic level of service with specific pricing for each add on.

· Whether OPIC internet access (IP address recognition, if available) to the website, providing access to current news, news archive, legislative tracking tools and Congressional/Legislative information for up to five (5) casual users, is available and any additional cost for that.

Past Performance

· Each vendor is required to submit three (3) past performance questionnaires filled out by current or recent subscribers. The completed questionnaires must be included with your formal proposal. Please allow sufficient time for the questionnaires to be filled out and returned to you. Details on this requirement are outlined in the Past Performance section of this solicitation.

C. 2 Requirements:

The service we seek is required to provide the following features. Your proposal must address each of these requirements.

General System Requirements:

· Daily email delivery of a newsletter covering current congressional/legislative news each business day excluding holidays and days Congress is not in session.

· Daily email delivery of a newsletter covering current U.S. budget discussions and issues.

· Menu driven and interactive access to the internet website containing current/archival congressional/legislative news, the legislative tracking tools, access to legislative materials including bills, committee markup, etc., congressional and budget-related information and analysis.

· Ability to create customized news alerts. (More detailed requirements for the news alerts are listed below in the Congressional and Legislative News section.)

· The email news alerts, newsletters and the interactive internet website must be part of a single, integrated information service that is nonpartisan in its approach to the respective topics covered.

· The web-based database is full-text (keyword) searchable.

· Access to a Help Desk or other interactive search assistance. Access to subject specialists to provide search guidance beyond the scope of the Help Desk.

· Ability to open, print or save the search results and related documents in appropriate formats such as Word documents, PDFs, or Excel.

· Training support in the form of customer oriented on-site training, off-the-shelf online training sessions and/or off-site training seminars.

· At the request of the Information Center Manager, the vendor will provide quarterly and/or annual usage statistics indicating the number of sessions and the number of documents downloaded.

Additional capabilities of interest to OPIC: In your proposal please indicate which of these additional capabilities are or are not available (if available but not part of basic service, please provide the additional pricing information):

IP address recognition for up to five (5) concurrent users to the Internet website.

Ability to search all sections of the database product (news, legislative, etc.) in a single search.

CRS reports

Transcripts

C. 3 Congressional and Legislative News: Daily News Alert(s)/Newsletters Required Features: OPIC requires access to customized news alerts and to pre-packaged newsletters that provide daily updates on the activities/issues facing the U.S. Congress and issues surrounding current legislation.

▪ News alerts are to be distributed each day via email in the morning and/or in the afternoon.

▪ News alerts will highlight the key events, issues, trends and changes in the U.S. Congress and the legislative process.

Additional capabilities of interest to OPIC: In your proposal, please indicate which of these additional capabilities are or are not available:

· Alternative delivery formats including HTML and mobile device formats

· Weekly news roundup of key congressional and legislative issues that provides more detail and analysis than the daily news alerts.

· Ability to create news alerts on a single topic/bill/issue.

· Ability to combine multiple topics/bills/issues into a single email news alert.

· Ability to designate a specific time of day (5 a.m., 7 a.m., 3 p.m., etc.) for the delivery of these news alerts.

· Ability to build alert/search strategies using keywords, phrases, bill numbers/names and/or search connectors such as AND, OR, NEAR.

· You must include a sample of the daily Congressional newsletter alert. You can provide this sample as part of your proposal text or as an appendix. Another option is to attach the sample in Word, PDF format, or via a link to your online system.

C. 4 Congressional/Legislative: Internet Website Requirements

In addition to the news alerts listed above, we require a companion website that meets the requirements below:

▪ Website to provide access to the following Congressional information:

· Current and past news on issues and activities of the members of the House and the Senate.

· Member profiles for both House and Senate

· House and Senate congressional staff contact information including contact information for regional offices.

· Congressional district profiles including maps.

· House and Senate calendars/schedules

· Summary and analysis of all floor actions in the House and Senate

· Voting history for members of Congress

▪ Website to provide access to detailed legislative information

· Summaries and analysis of major bills before Congress

· Ability to track bills throughout the legislative process

· Access to the text of bills along with committee reports and Congressional Record information

· Summary of floor votes

▪ Website to provide access to committee coverage

▪ Access to committee markup summaries, votes and amendment text

▪ Access to committee reports

▪ Access to committee profiles

Additional capabilities of interest to OPIC: In your proposal, please indicate which of these additional capabilities are or are not available:

· Deep archive of legislative information including bills, committee reports, and Congressional Record. Please indicate in your proposal the depth of your legislative archive.

· Deep archive of legislative related documents such as CBO and GAO reports, agency memorandum, Dear Colleague letters, etc. Please indicate in your proposal the depth of this archive.

· Deep archive of the text of all bills/bill versions along with the status and chronologies of those bills. Please indicate in your proposal the depth of your legislative archive.

· Deep archive of analysis of open committee/subcommittee markups. Please indicate in your proposal the depth of this archive.

· Ability to search bills, committee reports, and markups using keywords, bill number, member, committee, subcommittee and date.

· Power search mode that enables the experienced searcher to use connectors such as AND, OR and the ability to specify the proximity of words to one another.

C.5 U.S. Budget News and Analysis: News Alert(s) and Internet Website Requirements

Required Features: OPIC requires a news alert that tracks and analyzes the federal budget and the appropriations process throughout the fiscal year.

· Appropriation newsletter that is available on a daily basis.

· Access to more detailed budgetary analysis and a keyword searchable archive of previous budget newsletters through the Internet website.

Additional capabilities of interest to OPIC: In your proposal, please indicate which of these additional capabilities are or are not available:

· U.S. budget module will link directly to related legislation.

· Deep archive of budget news. Please indicate in your proposal the depth of your budget news archive.

· Power search mode that enables the experienced searcher to use connectors such as AND, OR and the ability to specify the proximity of words to one another.

· You must include a sample summary analysis of a current (or very recent) appropriations bill before Congress in your proposal. You can provide this sample as part of your proposal text or as an appendix. Another option is to attach the sample in Word, PDF format or via a link to your online system.

· You must include a sample copy of the budget newsletter in your proposal. You can provide this sample as part of your proposal text or as an appendix. Another option is to attach the sample in Word, PDF format or via a link to your online system.

PAST PERFORMANCE QUESTIONNAIRE: ATTACHMENT 1

This questionnaire is being sent to you as part of a past performance evaluation in response to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation’s (OPIC) solicitation for access to current nonpartisan coverage of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. budget, as well as the ability to track legislation. OPIC is looking for a service to provide this information in three different formats: 1) daily newsletters covering congressional/legislative/appropriation issues, 2) daily customized email news alerts on select congressional/legislative/appropriation topics and 3) access to an Internet website that expands on the daily newsletters/news alerts, providing access to a rich news/legislative archive, legislative tracking tools and related congressional/legislative materials and analysis.

Please fill out the questionnaire and return it to Jason Jamula, Contracting Specialist, at Jason.Jamula@opic.gov. We appreciate your honest evaluation and assistance in this process.

Thank you for taking time to share your comments with us.

Name of Your Organization: _____________________________________________________

Address: ______________________________________________________________________

Name of Evaluator/Position: ______________________________________________________

Phone #: ___________________ Fax #: __________________ Email: ____________________

Name of Company Being Evaluated: ________________________________________________

Period of time your organization has used this company’s Congressional/legislative/budget products:

Product (s) you are using from the Vendor being evaluated:

1.

2.

3.

Signature of Evaluator: ___________________________________________________________

Date: __________________________

PAST PERFORMANCE QUESTIONNAIRE

Part 1: Description: Please check all that apply to your organization.

Type of organization:

· Corporation

· Government Agency

· Law Firm

· Library

· Other ____________________________________

Organization size:

· Less than 300 employees

· 300 employees or more

Product (s) you currently use from this Vendor:

· Congressional/legislative newsletters/news alert

· Congressional/legislative news archive

· Budget newsletters/news alerts

· Bill tracking

· Congressional directories

Part 2: Performance:

Please rate this Vendor in the following areas. Please give a brief explanation of any rating below 3. Comments can be added directly below the statement in the table below or in the space provided at the end of the evaluation sheet.

(Using the 1 to 5 rating scale below please circle the rating you would give the vendor for each item listed. One (1) is the lowest and worst rating you can give the Vendor and five (5) is the highest and best rating you can give the Vendor. If the question is not relevant to the service the Vendor provides to your organization, please select N/A, meaning not applicable) Overall satisfaction with the daily news alert service 1 2 3 4 5 NA

Overall satisfaction with the quality & accuracy of the news alerts

1 2 3 4 5 NA

Overall satisfaction with the Internet Congressional & Legislative coverage 1 2 3 4 5 NA

Overall satisfaction with the Internet based legislative tracking service 1 2 3 4 5 NA

Overall satisfaction with the budget news and tracking service 1 2 3 4 5 NA

Overall ease of use of the search interface/menus on the Internet website 1 2 3 4 5 NA

Please rate the Vendor’s past performance in the following areas. Please give a brief explanation of any rating below 3. Feel free to add any additional commentary in the spaces provided.

(Using the 1 to 5 rating scale below please circle the rating you would give the Vendor for each item listed. One (1) is the lowest and worst rating you can give the Vendor and five (5) is the highest and best rating you can give the Vendor. If the question is not relevant to the to your organization, circle N/A, meaning not applicable) Overall satisfaction with the Vendor providing the services above. 1 2 3 4 5 NA

Helpdesk provides search assistance in a timely manner. 1 2 3 4 5 NA

Helpdesk knows when to escalate a problem to the next highest level of assistance.

Problems are resolved to your satisfaction in a timely and courteous manner.

You have an assigned customer service representative who is responsive to your inquiries.

Your customer representative understands your organization’s needs. 1 2 3 4 5 NA

The Vendor provides accurate invoices 1 2 3 4 5 NA

The Vendor provides focused and meaningful training opportunities. 1 2 3 4 5 NA

Do you recommend this Vendor’s legislative/congressional/budget information products?

1. Absolutely

2. Yes, with some reservations

3. No

Please explain your choice above.

Any additional comments are welcome:

ATTACHMENT 2: TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This purchase order is for the acquisition of commercial services. The following terms and conditions, and special requirements (if any) are applicable to this order.

FAR CLAUSES INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

FAR 52.252-2 - Clauses Incorporated by Reference (Feb 1998):

This contract incorporates one or more clauses by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. Also, the full text of a clause may be accessed electronically at this address: https://www.acquisition.gov/?q=browsefar

FAR 52.204-13 System for Award Management Maintenance (Oct 2016)

FAR 52.212-4

Contract Terms and Conditions -- Commercial Items (Oct 2018)

FAR 52.232-39 Unenforceability of Unauthorized Obligations (Jun 2013)

FAR 52.212-5

Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders (Oct 2019)

The following subparagraphs of FAR 52.212-5 are applicable:

FAR 52.204-10

Reporting Executive Compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards (Oct 2016)

FAR 52.219-8

Utilization of Small Business Concerns (Nov 2016)

FAR 52.222-3

Convict Labor (June 2003)

FAR 52.222-19

Child Labor—Cooperation with Authorities and Remedies (Oct 2016)

FAR 52.222-21

Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (Apr 2015)

FAR 52.222-26

Equal Opportunity (Sept 2016)

FAR52.222-35

Equal Opportunity for Veterans (Oct 2015)

FAR 52.222-36

Equal Opportunity for Workers with Disabilities (Jul 2014)

FAR 52.222-37

Employment Reports on Veterans (Feb 2016)

FAR 52.222-50

Combating Trafficking in Persons (Mar 2015)

FAR 52.223-18

Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving (Aug 2011)

FAR 52.225-13

Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases (Jun 2008)

FAR 52.232-33

Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer – System for Award Management (Jul 2013)

FAR 52.217-5

Evaluation of Option (Jul 1990)

FAR 52.232-1

Payments (Apr 1984)

FAR 52.232-34

Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-Other than System for Award Management (Jul 2013)

FAR 52.232.25

Prompt Pay (Jan 2017)

FAR .233-1

Disputes (May 2014)

FAR 52.17-8

Option to Extend Services (Nov 1999)

FAR 52.217-9

Option to Extend Term of Contract (Mar 2000)

FAR 52.243-1

Changes-Fixed Price (Aug 1987)

FAR 52.243-3

Changes- Time and Materials or Labor Hours (Sep 2000)

12/26/19