Amendement_0001_Q A_AG-3198-S-16-0052.pdf

6/30/2016

SECTION SF 30, BLOCK 14 CONTINUATION PAGES AG-3198-S-16-0052

Amendment 0001

The following portions of the RFP are hereby amended:

Submission of proposals for RFP AG-3198-S-16-0052 is hereby extended from July 13, 2016 to July 18, 2016 by 3:00 p.m. EDT.

Questions & Government Responses

Question 1: What is the anticipated award contract type and what are the funding minimum and maximum?

Government Response: As stated on page 3 of the solicitation, this will be a commercial item, performance based, firm-fixed price contract. The Government is not releasing the anticipated cost estimate, maximum cost or budget range.

Question 2: Will there be any data (such as administrative case records or demographics information) provided directly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) upon the award of the contract - or will the contractor be solely responsible for obtaining extant data? If so, in what format will the data be provided?

Government Response: As described in Section 3.2 of the PWS, the contractor will be responsible for collecting extant data from FNS, national surveys, and State caseload data. Some of these data sources are readily available via the internet.

Question 3: Will there be any facilitation of communication enabled by the FNS upon award of the contract for communicating with State and Federal stakeholders or other administrative personnel related to the SNAP program - or will the contractor be solely responsible for identifying the correct personnel with which to contact regarding State and Federal SNAP records and perspectives?

Government Response: FNS will facilitate communications and assist with identifying appropriate contacts at the State and Federal level.

Question 4: Is there any information available that would reflect what would have been covered in the FNS SNAP State Options Report for missing years (2008, 2010, 2013, 2014) or years previous to 2002?

Government Response: State Options reports are available on the FNS website (http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/state-options-report). Other data may be available directly from FNS or on the SNAP Waiver database on the FNS website (http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/waivers-rules). In addition, the Economic Research Service maintains a SNAP Policy database (http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/snap-policy-database.aspx).

Question 5: Is there any information available to reflect year-by-year State implementations of the Elderly and Disabled Recertification Interview Waiver since the waivers' establishment in 2009?

Government Response: See Question 4.

Question 6: Are the Table of Contents and Compliance Matrix included in the 50-page limit?

Government Response: No, the table of contents and compliance matrix are not part of the 50 page limit for the technical proposal.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/state-options-report http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/waivers-rules http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/snap-policy-database.aspx http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/snap-policy-database.aspx

Question 7: On page 30, the solicitation states that “offerors shall submit...a table of contents referencing the page and paragraph numbers that contain their response/methodology/narrative.”

There is no automatic paragraph numbering feature in Microsoft Word that does not interfere with other formatting and pagination concerns. Could you please provide additional guidance as to how we can comply with this requirement? Would referring to heading-level numbers be sufficient (e.g., A.3.1), or would you prefer something along the lines of Word’s line numbering function?

Government Response: Yes, heading- level numbers and associated page numbers are sufficient.

Question 8: For Objective 1, is there a specific timeframe (i.e., years) that FNS expects the contractor to investigate?

Government Response: No.

Question 9: For Objective 2, is “other assistance programs” limited to food and nutrition programs, or does it include all kinds of assistance/benefit programs?

Government Response: Offerors should include in their technical approach their plans for conducting the basic literature review, including the types of assistance/benefit programs they consider relevant for this effort.

Question 10: For Objective 2, is there a specific timeframe on which the literature review should be focused? For example, should the focus be on recent literature that has been published in the wake of major policy reforms?

Government Response: Offerors should include in their technical approach their plans for conducting the basic literature review, including the proposed timeframe for review.

Question 11: Are all objectives to be addressed within the selected 9–12 States, or should all States be considered for some of the objectives such as Objective 1?

Government Response: FNS anticipates that some objectives can be addressed at the national level and others just within the selected States. Contractors should propose, as part of their technical approach, an analysis plan that addresses all research objectives and identifies the planned data sources.

Question 12: Does FNS expect the contractor to explore additional extant data sources—in addition to the ones listed in the PWS—that are useful for addressing the study objectives?

Government Response: As noted on page 30 of the RFP, Offerors should include in their technical approach a description of all data sources to be examined and how they relate to the research objectives. Offerors may, but are not required to, explore additional extant data sources beyond those described in the PWS.

Question 13: What is FNS’ expectation for the current study in terms of the scale of primary data among individual elderly participants?

Government Response: The Government does not expect the primary data collection among individual elderly participants to be a nationally-representative sample and is not specifying a minimum number of interviews. As stated on page 31 of the RFP, under General Instructions, offerors should include as part of their technical approach “a detailed description of the proposed approach for conducting interview with elderly individuals, including plans to ensure a sufficient number of respondents participate in the data collection in order to address all research questions and that the mix of respondents reflects the variation in policy options, waivers, and demonstrations available to serve the elderly.”

Question 14: Key Personnel - Can the same person be assigned to more than one of the Key Personnel roles? For example, can the Project Director also be the Subject Matter Expert?

Government Response: Yes.

Question 15: Quote Submission - Would the Government consider email submission of pdf documents or eBuy submission instead of hard copy?

Government Response: No.

Question 16: Technical and Price Quote Content and Format - Can text in tables and figures be less than 12 point font and single spaced?

Government Response: Yes, the text in tables and figures can be as small as 10 point font.

Question 17: Technical and Price Quote Content and Format - Please confirm that the 50 page limit for the Technical Quote only includes Tab A (Technical Approach).

That is, Tab B (Management Approach), Tab C (Past Performance), resumes, letters of commitment, table of contents referencing the page and paragraph numbers that contain the response, and the cover page are all excluded from the 50 page limit.

Government Response: As stated in the solicitation on page 29-30, the technical proposal includes Tab A- Technical Approach, Tab B- Management Approach and Past Performance. The technical proposal page limit shall not exceed 50 pages in length.

Resumes, letters of commitment, cover sheet, table of contents and compliance matrix are excluded from the 50 page limit.

Question 18: For the Technical and Price Quotes, what is the assumed project start date?

Government Response: The contractor should assume the project begins no later than 9/30/16.

Question 19: Will the contractor have access to FNS Regional Offices to discuss States to include in the project?

Government Response: The contractor will work collaboratively with FNS staff, which may include Regional Office staff where beneficial to the study, to identify States for inclusion in the study.

Question 20: Please confirm if this proposal should be submitted hard copy or via email or both.

Government Response: As stated in the solicitation on page 28, “offerors shall submit one (1) original and three (3) hard copies of your technical proposal and one original and one (1) hard copy of your price proposal to the office specified below. Also provide one

(1) technical proposal USB flash drive and one (1) price proposal USB flash drive.”

Question 21: Page 6, AGAR453.237-74-Key Personnel (Feb 1988): Lists four (4) required project personnel. Please provide FNS’s description of the role and anticipated responsibilities for each of the four (4) required project personnel.

Director (or equivalent) Senior Researcher (or equivalent) Survey Director (or equivalent) Subject Matter Expert (or equivalent)

Government Response: Generally speaking, the Project Director would be the overall technical lead for the project; a Senior Researcher would provide higher level technical review for the study; the Survey Director would lead the primary data collection activities; and the Subject Matter Expert would provide additional expertise where needed. Offerors may propose alternative labor categories for key personnel and proposed staff may fulfill more than one role. In the solicitation under Management Approach (p. 31) provides further instructions regarding the staffing plan and required areas of expertise.

Question 22: Page 6, AGAR453.237-74-Key Personnel (Feb 1988): Can additional labor categories be added for the proposal?

Government Response: Yes, the offeror can propose key personnel in addition to the 4 required key personnel and whatever labor mix needed to meet the requirements.

Question 23: Page 6, AGAR453.237-74-Key Personnel (Feb 1988): Please provide level of effort estimates (expected hours) for each of the required project personnel?

Government Response: The offeror is expected to propose the level of effort that is appropriate for their technical proposal.

Question 24: Statement of Work:Task 3, and Task 7 (Data Collections): Can incentives be paid to participants? Is so, is there a maximum amount that can be paid and what is that maximum?

Government Response: Incentives may be allowable if properly justified as part of the Information Collection Request submission (Task 4). That is a methodological decision to be made by the offeror and OMB determines the parameters around incentives.

Question 25: Statement of Work:Task 3, and Task 7 (Data Collections): Can incentives be paid to stakeholders? Is so, is there a maximum amount that can be paid and what is that maximum?

Government Response: See Question 24.

Question 26: Can you provide an estimate or range for the level of effort anticipated for this project?

Question 27: Do you have any expectations about the relative level of effort for the interviews to be conducted for the study versus the extraction and analysis of secondary data sources?

Government Response: See Question 13.

Question 28: When you request the completion of interviews with elderly participants, are there any priority sub-populations that you seek information from? Does the number of completed interviews need to be large enough to disaggregate findings by characteristics such as age, income, household size, ethnicity, and/or prior versus new receipt of SNAP?

Government Response: See Question 13.

Question 29: In the closing paragraph of C3.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES, after Objective 5, the RFP states, “The primary data sources will be interviews with elderly participants who are served by various policy options, waivers, or demonstrations and administrative case records….”

However, several research questions under Objectives 4 and 5 ask about real or perceived barriers to participation and program perception (i.e. reasons for not participating). It seems that only including existing elderly participants in the sample will not provide pertinent evidence to answer these research questions. Can you clarify whether interviews will be held only with program participants, or whether you expect the interview research to include other types of eligible elderly individuals?

Government Response: As stated in the PWS, the government anticipates that the primary data sources will be interviews with elderly participants supplemented by data from other sources as needed to address the research questions. Please also see Question 13.

Question 30: Page 6 of the RFP lists a Survey task lead, but the scope of work does not request a survey. Can you clarify if this position is, in fact, intended to lead a survey or to lead the interview task?

Government Response: The Government anticipates that the Survey Director (or equivalent) will lead the interview task.

Question 31: Do you anticipate that the Offeror will analyze the case records administrative data at the individual-level to answer the research questions about the impact of a state’s demonstration or waiver policies and procedures? If so, is there an assumption that we would be able to obtain these data through agreements with the participating states?

Government Response: Generally speaking, administrative data can be obtained through agreements with participating States. Please also see Question 12.

Question 32: The following language is included in the RFP:

Task 10: Submit Data Files: The Contractor shall submit to FNS a set of CDs (or other electronic format agreeable to FNS) that include the raw data files and data analytic files used to produce all results that appear in the final report. The data files shall not include any information which would compromise participant privacy including names, addresses, or other personal identifiers.

All data files collected and analyzed through qualitative methods shall also be provided, as well as interview transcripts. These files shall be provided in format compatible with STATA…

Interview transcripts could not be readily provided from STATA; thus, how should these transcripts be provided? Also, how can we provide them in a way that will not inadvertently disclose the identity of respondents (for example, the identity of a State administrator)?

Government Response: Task 10 indicates that files shall be provided in a format compatible with STATA or an alternative format agreed to by FNS. Offerors may propose alternative formats for providing data files as part of their technical approach.

The offeror is responsible for deciding how participant privacy in the data files will be completed. It is the offerors responsibility to submit data files to FNS that do not compromise participant privacy.

Question 33: If the Offeror proposes to use a subcontractor, should the required three past performances references be split among the proposed prime contractor and subcontractor, or should both the prime contractor and proposed subcontractor each submit 3 references?

Government Response: As stated on page 32 of the solicitation, “the Offerors shall provide a description of past performance which contains at least three (3) relevant projects within the past three years to include contracts or task orders for work of the same or similar to the requirements specified in the PWS.’ The Government does not specify how to split the past performance references between the prime contractor and subcontractor.

Question 34: What is the projected level of effort for the entire project?

Question 35: What qualifications, other than 5 years experience, are desired for the quality control representative?

Government Response: As noted on page 15 of the solicitation, the only qualification is that the QC manager shall have 5 years of experience overseeing a quality control program and be responsible for receiving documentation prior to submitting to the FNCS

COR.

Question 36: Would FNS provide the contractor with access to administrative caseload data? In managing these data will FNS accept FISMA self-certification or will an ATO from USDA be required?

Government Response: See Question 31.

Question 37: Is the contractor(s) currently conducting the ESAP demonstration prohibited from bidding on this RFP due to a conflict of interest?

Government Response: No.

Question 38: Are administrative caseloads longitudinal data available from all State agencies?

Government Response: See Question 31.

Question 39: The solicitation does not include an estimated LOE or budget range. Could the FNS provide additional details regarding the maximum cost or budget range for this project?

Government Response: The offeror is expected to propose the level of effort that is appropriate for their technical proposal.

Question 40: The RFP mentions that 9-12 states will be included in the study, but doesn’t indicate a desired sample size for interviews with elderly participants. Nor does the solicitation an estimated LOE for this task. Could the FNS provide guidance on the scope of this particular task – either a desired sample size or a maximum cost?

Government Response: See Question 13.