A4_-_LSJ_-_Sole_Source_Bridge_OASIS_Task_Order.pdf

Limited-Sources Justification (LSJ)

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule Program, 41

U.S.C. 152(3), Competitive Procedures, and 40 U.S.C. 501, Services for Executive Agencies.

1. Agency and Contracting Activity.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency

(FEMA), Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO), proposes to award a sole source bridge pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. Describe the action being approved, and include the name and address of the proposed contractor(s).

FEMA intends to award a sole source bridge contract to continue support services for the

Individual and Community Preparedness Division (ICPD) pursuant to FAR

16.505(b)(2)(i)(A) to Battelle Memorial Institue, 1204 Technology Drive, Aberdeen, Maryland 21001, due to poor performance by the incumbent contractor. Through the original competition for these services, Battelle was the highest technically rated offeror.

Additionally, Battelle had the second lowest priced offer out of all technically acceptable offerors. This sole source bridge task order will be placed against Battelle’s OASIS

Contract and will include labor rates to use to support fair and reasonable pricing. The bridge task order will use a streamlined statement of work for only the requirements needed to allow for continued mission critical support while a new recompete is completed.

3. Description of Supplies/Services. Describe the supplies or services to be acquired. Provide the estimated total value (including options, if any).

The requirement is to award a sole source bridge task order to provide continued research, analysis, communication and outreach support services to ICPD to meet the mission of the division until a new competitive task order is awarded, anticipated for July 2019. The below reflects the estimated cost of a twelve (12) month period of performance

Period Total

12 Months $6,518,752.00

4. Authority and supporting rationale.

Authority:

FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A) The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays. The new task order is a sole source bridge to the highest technically rated, second lowest priced reasonable offeror from the original competitive GSA OASIS solicitation for these services.

Rationale:

http://uscode.house.gov/

The existing task order was competed and awarded in September 2017 in accordance with GSA OASIS ordering procedures. The task order had a nine month base period and one twelve month option period with an awarded amount of $7,657,903.65. As of

7/06/2017 there have been many performance issues resulting in missed submittance of highly critical deliverables. As such, the option period of the current task order cannot be exercised and would result in a lapse of critical support services required and planned for the next year covered by the option period.

A sole source bridge is necessary to provide continued services to ICPD to meet the mission of the division until a new competitive task order is awarded.

Suspending performance until a competitive fair opportunity process could be completed would lead to significant disruption of currently scheduled services and unacceptable delays in the transition of these services. FEMA anticipates that, following competitive procedures, a new requirement will take 6 months to award, given the size and complexity of the requirement. FEMA has chosen to minimize its risk by awarding a sole source bridge task order while pursuing a new task order on a competitive basis, with award anticipated in July 2019. The following describes the critical activities that contract support assists ICPD in completing.

ICPD has a requirement for program support; regional support; research, analysis and evaluation; and outreach and communication to support the mission to increase individual and community preparedness and resiliency.

ICPD supports the FEMA Resilience Mission by connecting individuals, organizations, and communities with research and tools to build and sustain capabilities to prepare for any disaster or emergency. The Division conducts research to better understand effective preparedness actions and ways to motivate the public to take those actions. ICPD develops and shares preparedness resources and coordinates comprehensive disaster preparedness initiatives that empower communities to prepare for, protect against, respond to, and recover from a disaster. This mission is achieved through close coordination with the FEMA Regions and working relationships with federal, state, local, and tribal agencies. This includes working with nongovernmental partners from all sectors nationally through neighborhood-based community groups.

ICPD’s goal is to achieve a culture of preparedness for the U.S population of over 322 million. Success is a culture where preparedness is part of everyday life: Americans know their relevant hazards and have taken actions to prepare themselves. Together, the whole community works to plan for and practice the community’s response to both likely and unexpected hazards. ICPD achieves this mission through five critical activities:

Research:

Research to help individuals and communities prepare for, protect against, and respond to disaster by providing current, validated guidance for decision-making as well as annual national research to better understand effective preparedness actions and ways to motivate the public to take those actions. ICPD research activities study and develop

“emergency preparedness measures designed to afford adequate protection of life and property, including research and studies as to the best methods of treating the effects of hazards,” as directed in the Stafford Act, Section 611 (42 U.S. Code Section 5196) (e)(1).

Impact without Bridge Contract

ICPD conducts Protective Action (PA) research to help individuals and communities prepare for, protect against, and respond to disaster by providing current, validated guidance for decision-making. With this critical contract support, ICPD maintains a

Protective Action Validation Report for use by FEMA, Federal Agencies and external partners, such as academic and industry SMEs. This Report documents more than 380 actions that individuals take to protect themselves during a disaster, based on more than

275 research studies and articles. It is critical that FEMA continue to update this document in order to to provide the most accurate life saving and injury preventing guidance in advance of disasters, both natural and manmade. For example, during the recent volcanic eruption in Hawaii, ICPD was responsible for validation of the best method to protect lungs when outdoors. Leveraging contract resources, ICPD was able to collect, compare and assess the appropriate research from SMEs, which resulted in updating the outdated guidance on Ready.gov from using a damp cloth to wearing an N-

95 mask. All disasters are not predictable, and therefore, this contract support is critical to ensure that FEMA is able to get the appropriate protective guidance to the public immediately, based on current events.

The annual National Household Survey includes hazard specific oversamples that allow

FEMA to better understand the differences in preparedness attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors between those who live in parts of the country with a history of specific hazards. The hazards include tornados, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, winter storms, extreme heat, nuclear explosions, contagious diseases, and toxic chemical release.

The National Household Survey is the sole source for the Quadrennial Homeland

Security Review preparedness performance measure: “Percent of adults that took a preparedness action at their workplace, school, home or other community location in the past year.” Without this critical contract support, ICPD will not be able to conduct the

National Household Survey or analyze past year results. This will mean that DHS will fail to report on this performance measure to OMB. Further, this will impact FEMAs ability to conduct longitudinal assessments on the public’s preparedness in advance of disasters. Without this information, FEMA will not be able to meet the mission of

“helping people before, during and after disasters.”

Operations:

Administrative and management activities associated with the operations of Division mission requirements to prepare individuals, organizations and communities. ICPD operational activities are outlined by the Stafford Act, Section 611 (42 U.S. Code 5196)

(e)(3), which states: “The Administrator may study and develop emergency preparedness measures designed to afford adequate protection of life and property, including (3) developing equipment or facilities and effecting the standardization thereof to meet emergency preparedness requirements.” These administrative and management activities are necessary to “coordinate a comprehensive campaign to build and sustain national preparedness” as directed in Presidential Policy Directive-8.

Impact without Bridge Contract

Through emailed newsletters, social media, and live-streaming events, ICPD made more than 120 million reaches in 2017 with preparedness messages and resources.

Webinars: ICPD hosts preparedness focused webinars for different audiences, including the general public, emergency managers, community leaders and local government staff. In 2017 there were 2,757 attendees, with an average of 153 attendees per webinar. Attendee polling indicated that 92 percent of participants found the webinars to be excellent or good. Eighty-seven percent of attendees stated that they strongly agreed or agreed that the content they learned by participating in the webinar would be useful to their personal preparedness efforts.

Social Media: ICPD has three social media accounts including the

@Prepareathon Twitter handle, @Citizen_Corps Twitter handle, and the

Prepareathon Facebook page, that boast a total of 43,635 followers. The daily preparedness messages and resources shared on all social media accounts reached more than 5 million online users in 2017. Additionally, individuals and organizations shared ICPD messages on social media a total of 14,006 times.

eBrief Newsletters: ICPD manages three eBrief distribution lists with 229,380 collective subscribers. These include the Individual and Community

Preparedness, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and Children &

Disasters eBriefs. In 2017, ICPD sent 75 eBriefs with an average 13 percent open rate. The CERT eBrief holds the highest open rate with an annual average of 15 percent.

These activities are a critical element of achieving the FEMA Strategic Goal 1: Building a Culture of Preparedness within our communities and our governments will support a

National effort to be ready for the worst disasters – at the individual, family, community, state, local, tribal, territorial (SLTT), and Federal levels. The lack of continued support for this mission component will impact achievement of meeting this goal.

Citizen Responder:

These programs are designed to educate and empower individuals and communities to take action in emergency situations, provide lifesaving care before professional help arrives, and assist emergency managers. Pursuant to Stafford Act, Section 611 (42 U.S.C.

Sec. 5196) (f)(1)(A), ICPD Citizen Responder programs “conduct and arrange, by contract or otherwise, training for the instruction of emergency preparedness officials and other persons in the organization, operation, and techniques of emergency preparedness.”

These activities support the primary mission of the Agency, which is to “provide funding, training, exercises, technical assistance, planning, and other assistance to build tribal, local, State, regional, and national capabilities (including communications capabilities), necessary to respond to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster,” as stated in 6 U.S. Code Section 313 (b)(2)(G).

Impact without Bridge Contract

You Are the Help Until Help Arrives (UHA) is a program designed to educate and empower the public to take action in emergency situations and provide lifesaving care before professional help arrives. Through online instruction and in-person trainings, participants are trained to take action and, through simple steps, potentially save a life.

Materials developed for this educational campaign include a 2.5-hour instructor-led course, a 30-minute web-based training, and an interactive video. To date, 98% individuals who have completed the UHA course have indicated that they are more likely to help others in the event of an emergency. FEMA has been working to expand this program for elementary age children under the new name “Ready2Help.” This new expansion is nearly complete and would bring a positive training opportunity for the roughly 75 million children under the age 18 in the United States. Without this critical contract support, ICPD will not be able to complete this new program, thus negatively impacting children who make up nearly a quarter of the Nation’s population.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program educates volunteers about disaster preparedness for the hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. CERT offers a consistent, nationwide approach to volunteer training and organization that professional responders can rely on during disaster situations, which allows them to focus on more complex tasks. Through CERT, the capabilities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters is built and enhanced. There are over 2,700 local CERT programs nationwide, with more than

600,000 individuals trained since CERT became a national program. Maintaining the training of these volunteers is critical to the success of FEMA and local communities facing disasters and emergencies. Furthermore, the program grows the life saving capabilities of the public. FEMA is nearly complete with an update to the entire suite of

CERT curricula. The bridge task order is critical to ensure this revised curricula is rolled-out immediately upon final approval so all volunteers are trained to the correct standards.

Youth Preparedness:

This includes programs, resources, and technical assistance coordinating and also encourages the inclusion of youth leaders and child-centered issues in community preparedness planning. ICPD Youth Preparedness programs, resources, and technical assistance are required by 6 U.S. Code Section 313 (b)(2)(B), which directs the FEMA

Administrator to “partner with State, local, and tribal governments and emergency response providers, with other Federal agencies, with the private sector, and with nongovernmental organizations to build a national system of emergency management that can effectively and efficiently utilize the full measure of the Nation’s resources to respond to natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters, including catastrophic incidents.” FEMA’s Youth Preparedness initiatives also fulfill the directive of Presidential Policy Directive-8 to coordinate “community-based programs…to enhance national resilience.”

Impact without Bridge Contract

The programmatic contract support provides ICPD assistance in maintaining the National

Strategy for Youth Preparedness Education (National Strategy), the FEMA Youth

Preparedness Council, the Youth Preparedness Technical Assistance Center, and Youth-specific materials such as the Student Tools for Emergency Planning (STEP) training.

Federal Agencies, community organizations, local governments, and the private sector all look to FEMA as a leader in youth preparedness. Our collective efforts are coordinated through the National Strategy. More than sixty prominent public- and private-sector organizations have affirmed the national strategy meets regularly to foster comprehensive disaster education for children. ICPD requires contract support services to assist with these regular meetings in order to collect data and performance measures from the affirmers. Further, the contract support is required to provide assistance to the 15 members of the Youth Preparedness Council.

The FEMA Youth Preparedness Technical Assistance (TA) Center is a resource for current and potential youth preparedness practitioners to receive information, request materials, or connect with other practitioners. Assistance is available free of charge via email or on-line. Examples of materials currently offered include information on starting a youth preparedness program, the Youth Preparedness Catalog, and the monthly

Children & Disasters e-newsletter. The newsletter reached over 46,000 people in 2017.

Materials such as the STEP training curriculum are provided to approximately 11,000 individuals annually. This is only possible through the contract support which receives, catalogs, and responds to assistance requests from the public.

Capacity Building:

Training, resources, and activities are used to build communities’ capacity to take action to prepare for, and protect themselves against, disasters by including diverse community stakeholders’ capabilities and concerns in planning and response. ICPD trainings, resources, and activities support the Nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, by planning, training, and building the emergency management profession, as directed in 6 U.S. Code Section 314(a)(9)(B). These activities also fulfill 6 U.S. Code Section 313 (b)(2)(G), which states the specific activities of

FEMA shall include training, exercises, technical assistance, planning, and other assistance to build tribal, local, State, regional, and national capabilities (including communications capabilities), necessary to respond to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster.

Impact without Bridge Contract

The National Preparedness Goal (The Goal) was first released in 2011 and updated in

2015. The Goal describes a capabilities-based vision for preparedness nationwide, and identifies 32 core capabilities necessary to achieve that vision across five mission areas:

Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery. The National Preparedness

System (NPS) involves a continuing cycle of activity, beginning with identifying and assessing risk and ending with reviewing and updating. A critical central element of the

NPS is building and sustaining capabilities for the whole community. "Whole

Community" means federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial, first responders, emergency management community, private sector, nonprofits, families, and individuals. Together, we achieve an integrated approach to national preparedness. ICPD, with contract support, manages many national programs that support how this whole community builds and sustains capabilities. Prepareathon is an example of this where local community organizers leverage the online resources that are hosted through a contract supported website. These resources help communities plan and promote local events with the goal of moving individuals and communities from awareness to action by preparing for relevant hazards through group discussions, drills, and activities. To date, there have been over 147 million participants in Prepareathon events. Other examples include the Ready

Business Preparedness Workshops, which are planned and hosted with contract support.

In 2017 there were nearly 500 local businesses that participated in these workshops, including several in Puerto Rico in advance of Hurricane Maria. Without the bridge task order, FEMA will not be able to maintain these programs at a level that is critical for meeting the National Preparendess Goal.

This sole source bridge task order affords ICPD adequate time to pursue longer-term vendor resourcing via a full and open competitive process resulting in a new award. The bridge allows ICPD the time to facilitate a full and fair competition process while meeting its mission absent any lapse in critical services.

Alternatively, without the sole source bridge, ICPD cannot guarantee it can support the programmatic mission critical services for currently scheduled conferences or continue to pursue increased preparedness and resilency, which directly hinders national preparedness and our collective ability to be a secure and resilient Nation.

5. Determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the anticipated order represents the best value consistent with FAR 16.505.

The contracting officer determines that the anticipated price(s) will be fair and reasonable based on previous competition and historical rates.

6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results, or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Market research shows from the past competition for these services that there are multiple OASIS contractors able to meet this requirement. Through the past recent competition, Battalle was shown to be the highest technically rated offeror with the next reasonable price. However, full competition at this time will not allow for ICPD to conduct the surveys and conferences that are currently scheduled and required at this time, and in the coming months, and would result in a lapse in critial support. A request for proposals for a new competitive action is planned to be released as early as possible to all OASIS Contract holders in CY2018 and the new award will replace this sole source bridge task order. Award of the new competitive task order is anticipated for July 2019.

7. Any other facts supporting the limited-sources justification. Additional facts may be stated in this section. If there are no additional facts, you must state that here.

This requirement is to award a sole source bridge task order through Battelle’s OASIS contract to allow for continued services while a new requirement is competed. Full competition at this time would hinder ICPD’s ability to meet the need of support for current requriements without substantial disruption and significant delay until such time the new award can be accomplished.

8. A statement of actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to restricted consideration (i.e., limited-sources) before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made. Include a statement of actions taken or that will be taken to increase competition for future acquisitions of the same item/service (e.g., the government intends to revise overly restrictive technical specifications, acquire data rights, or pursue some other means to increase future competition).

A new package for this requriment is currently being completed to allow for a request for proposals to be issued to all OASIS contract holders for re-competition. Award is anticipated in July 2019.

9. FEMA intends to post this limited source justification on Fedbizopps pursuant to FAR

16.505(b)(a)(i)(A).