A39_ND_Politico_Redacted_1.pdf

SINGLE SOURCE DETERMINATION USING

SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES (SAP) UNDER THE

SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD (SAT)

AUTHORITY: FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)

1. Contracting activity/agency.

Department of the Interior, Interior Business Center, Acquisition Services Directorate, on behalf of the Department of the Interior, Office of Policy Analysis (PPA).

2. Description of supplies or services required to meet agency needs.

This a sole source justification prepared for the Department of the Interior's (DOI), Office of the Secretary (OS), Office of Policy Analysis (PPA), to acquire an Online Politico subscription to Energywire, Climatewire, E&E Daily, Greenwire, and E&E News PM (E&E subscription).

The E&E subscription provides online access to comprehensive, daily (Monday - Friday) coverage of environmental; natural resource; energy; land use; climate policy;

energy markets; and activities related to all the Department’s activities they engage

in. The Office of Policy Analysis requires 20 E&E subscriptions for this service. The E&E subscription includes the following:

1. Coverage of major, breaking news as it relates to environmental, energy, natural resources, natural hazards, natural disasters, earth science, land use, and climate policy.

2. News stories that mention DOI, DOI decision makers, DOI programs, or issues related to DOI management of natural resources; issues related to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians.

3. Coverage includes:

a. Daily updates of major environmental, natural resource, land use, and energy actions that impact the economy, business, the Federal government, Native Americans, and Alaska Native communities, DOI and its bureaus, the DOI budget, DOI programs, the environment, and society.

b. U.S. Congressional actions (on the Hill, in Committee, and in upcoming Hearings and Markups) that impact Interior specifically and its activities related to DOI and its bureaus that they engage including environmental, natural resources, conservation, endangered species, energy, land use, and climate policy, and energy markets.

c. Earth science, natural hazards, remote sensing, and natural disasters and their effects on the U.S. and other nations. This coverage also includes international news related to these topics.

d. A primary focus on domestic news but also includes major international news affecting the items mentioned in 3(a) and 3(b).

e. Regulatory and budget matters related to the items in 3(a) and 3(b).

f. Domestic coverage includes news at the state, regional, and local levels.

g. Daily coverage includes news related to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians and any legal, taxation, and policy matters affecting their welfare, reservation economies, natural resources and the Federal and state agencies involved in those matters.

h. Broad and insightful coverage of the transformation of the energy sector, including coverage of business, economic, environmental, and political issues surrounding the conventional, unconventional, and renewable energy industry, at the state, local, national, and international levels.

i. Information on oil, gas, coal and renewable energy prices, production costs, exploration and development, and any major data releases by Federal statistical agencies or international agencies related to prices and forecasts for those commodities.

4. Breaking news is provided in real time.

5. News coverage is delivered in the format of an email “newsletter” that contains headlines and one- or two-line summaries, with each headline being an active link to the new service web site where the full individual news story is displayed.

6. Breaking news coverage is organized by topic (e.g., all energy-related topics grouped under a single heading or provided in a separate email).

7. News stories contain live links to source documents such as court decisions, reports, data, and data sources, etc.

8. The Office of Policy Analysis has access to a searchable online database of coverage.

9. The Office of Policy Analysis can share and forward news stories.

10. Office of Policy Analysis can add or delete users from the service as needed.

3. Identification of the limited source(s) to be solicited.

POLITICO, LLC.

1000 Wilson BLVD, 8th Floor Arlington, VA, 22209 Point of Contact: Sohrab Azad sazad@eenews.net

4. Reason for authority cited.

The contracting officer has determined the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available, in accordance with (IAW) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FR) 13.106-1(b)(1)(i) – Soliciting from a single source for purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold.

Exclusive Licensing Agreement

5. Rationale.

Politico’s E&E subscription has unique and innovative capabilities and provide cost effective services not otherwise available to the Government.

Politico is the sole proprietor, distributor, and developer of the specific E&E subscription that is applicable to DOI. Although the E&E subscription is commercial, it is exclusively distributed only by Politico, which has stated there are no other agents or dealers authorized to provide the specific E&E subscription Office of Policy Analysis requires.

The E&E subscription is unique because other news sources such as national newspapers (e.g., The Washington Post, The Hill, CNN) are too high-level, offering general overviews of topics that may overlap with Interior’s mission but without the essential depth, context, and direct links to essential resources that E&E provides. Further, while political leadership in Interior and beyond do read those general sources, the coverage of E&E is of very high relevance because it is tailored to our mission and what is happening every day.

The Office of Policy Analysis found that other environment-related news services have an advocacy component that deviates from their core information needs. For example, Environment News Service (https://ens-newswire.com/) and Mongabay (https://mongabay.org) have more of a global geographic scope than the Office requires and do not cover topics that are relevant to Interior and its decisionmakers. Some options, like Mongabay or Grist (https://grist.org), have depth of coverage in some areas but global scope and an additional conservation advocacy component. These are not suitable to Interior’s needs and those of the Office.

6. Market Research.

Politico confirmed that at they are the sole source for this product. Other news subscriptions were researched, but no other subscription provides the required depth and context supplied by the E&E subscription.

Other sources such as Environment News Service and Mongabay that provide the most similar news subscriptions were considered, but still fell short with the various limitations listed above when compared to the E&E subscription.