ECG RFI 70RSAT25RFI000002.pdf

RFI Notice ID: 70RSAT25RFI000002

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

70RSAT25RFI000002

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate

Export Controls Group (ECG) Support

NOTE: THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and market research planning purposes. This RFI shall not be construed as an obligation on the part of the Government. This is NOT a Request for Quotations or Proposals. No solicitation document exists, and the Government may or may not issue a formal solicitation as a result of the responses received to this RFI.

The Government will not pay for any response or demonstration expenses. All costs incurred responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party's expense. Failure to respond to this RFI will not preclude participation in any future solicitation. Any information received will become the property of the Government and will not be returned to the submitter. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or sensitive information.

The Government’s explicit intent, in this request for information, is to not receive from respondents any proprietary data, trade secrets, business sensitive information, or information considered CONFIDENTIAL under 18 U.S.C. §1905. The Government’s constraint does not in any way relieve contractors from their responsibility to properly mark proprietary data when it is provided, nor does it alleviate any requirement for the Government to protect marked data. The Government is not obligated to protect unmarked data.

The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Federal Government and will not be returned.

I. PURPOSE OF THIS RFI

The purposes of this RFI is:

a) To gain an understanding of Industry’s view for providing Export Controls Group (ECG) Support compliance with applicable federal laws, regulations, and guidelines. Support services are required to provide the requisite technical expertise and programmatic assistance to meet this need, with a focus on compliance with multilateral and U.S. export controls.

b) Obtain Industry feedback on recruiting resources with expertise in export controls.

c) Obtain feedback on the proposed ECG organizational approach described in this RFI.

d) Obtain feedback on proposed costing structure as described in the RFI.

II. BACKGROUND/DESCRIPTION

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is committed to using cutting edge technologies and scientific talent in our quest to make America safer. The DHS Science & Technology (S&T) Directorate is tasked with researching and organizing the scientific, engineering, and technological resources of the United States and leveraging these existing resources into technological tools to help protect the homeland. Central to the integrity and advancement of these endeavors is the need to ensure DHS compliance with applicable federal laws, regulations, and guidelines. The ECG performs compliance support and oversight functions to ensure DHS-conducted/-funded/- sponsored activities are compliant with relevant U.S. laws and regulations, international agreements, federal and Departmental policies, and related standards and guidance.

The ECG compliance support helps facilitate DHS efforts that are critical to national security. The ECG falls under the Compliance Assurance Program Office (CAPO) and is housed within the S&T Directorate, but is responsible for DHS-wide compliance with:

• U.S. export control laws and regulations.

• Intra-Departmental reviews of Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States

(CFIUS) cases with a focus on homeland security technologies; and

• Compliance with associated DHS policies and procedures.

The scope of this effort will be to support the operation of a centralized, comprehensive export controls compliance program (including CFIUS), to be managed within S&T, to ensure that all activities conducted or sponsored by DHS shall comply fully with applicable federal laws, regulations, and guidelines. High level summaries of these requirements follow, but please refer to the draft Statement of Work (SOW) included with this RFI for specific details.

III. QUESTIONS FOR INDUSTRY

Based on your understanding of the CAPO, approach for ECG in the attached SOW, please respond to the following:

Interest in Project

1. Contract Type: DHS is contemplating a single award ordering type (e.g., IDIQ, BPA) vehicle for providing ECG support services.

a. Please describe your capacity to deliver the required ECG support of a centralized, comprehensive export controls compliance program to be managed within S&T, to ensure that all activities conducted or sponsored by the Department shall comply fully with U.S. export control laws and regulations.

b. Please describe the recommended contract type (e.g., Labor Hour (LH), Time-and- Material (T&M), Firm Fixed Price (FFP), or Hybrid) that would be most effective for acquiring the required services and briefly explain why.

2. Subject Matter Expertise Support Experience

a. Briefly describe the company/team experience in providing expertise in the areas of U.S.

export laws and regulations, such as;

• Export Administration Regulations (EAR)

• International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR),

• Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations; and

• Multilateral export control regimes such as:

o Wassenaar Arrangement; expertise in CCFIUS as well as evaluating technologies for homeland security equities.

b. Briefly describe the company/team experience in providing analysis of the legal basis for export controls.

c. Briefly describe the company/team experience in providing support to the Government in developing or revising DHS directives, instructions, policies, procedures, guidance, and other information to ensure export controls compliance for activities conducted, sponsored, or funded by DHS.

d. Briefly describe the company/team experience in support for the identification of DHS activities subject to export controls and assistance in acquiring appropriate project documentation.

e. Briefly describe the company/team experience in systematic assessment of export control compliance of selected DHS programs, projects, technologies, technical data and/or transactions.

f. Briefly describe the company/team experience in supporting export control compliance databases for all export control reviews.

g. Briefly describe the company/team experience in support an outreach program to sensitize program managers and researchers to export control compliance requirements.

h. Briefly describe the company/team experience in providing interagency policy and technical support related to export control issues, questions, and meetings.

i. Briefly describe the company/team experience in provide technical and regulatory support to identify CFIUS transactions that have a nexus with S&T’s mission space, including emerging and foundational technologies with homeland security applications.

j. Briefly describe the company/team experience in providing technical surge support to deliver the required ECG support of Intra-Departmental reviews of CFIUS cases.

k. Briefly describe the company/team experience technical and regulatory support to identify CFIUS transactions that have a nexus with S&T’s mission space, including emerging and foundational technologies with homeland security applications

3. Other Capabilities:

a. Describe any additional capabilities that should be considered by the Government in its planning for a contract for providing ECG support services.

b. Do you consider the Government’s preference for staff expertise with Top Secret and Sensitive

Compartmentalized Information (TS-SCI) to be financially feasible?

Why or why not? Please provide a detailed explanation.

4. Personnel

The Government’s estimated personnel requirements are described in the accompanying draft SOW and are expected to include a mix of subject matter experts with up to a Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (TS-SCI) clearance as outlined in the table below:

Specialty Area

Labor Categories

Clearance Required at Start

Ability to Obtain Clearance Level

Export Controls

• Senior Project Manager/Project Manager

• Lead Analyst Senior/ Senior Associate

• Mid-Level Analyst (surge)

• Functional Specialist (surge)

Secret

TS/SCI

CFIUS • Senior Analyst

• Mid-Level Analyst

Secret TS/SCI

Contract Management • Senior Project Manager/ Project Manager

Secret TS/SCI

5. Rough Cost Estimate (OPTIONAL)

a. Provide a rough cost estimate for the services described in the attached SOW assuming a base period of 12 months and four (4) 12-month option periods.

IV. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Interested parties are invited to address the questions pertaining to CAPO ECG support services identified in this RFI. The total submission page count shall not exceed 15 pages, Times New Roman, Font Size 11, excluding the cover page. Only one submission will be reviewed per company for this RFI. Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Emails with attachments larger than 5 MB shall be broken down into multiple emails with no one attachment exceeding 5 MB.

Each electronic submission shall include:

1) Response to RFI Notice 70RSAT25RFI000002

2) Company legal business name and physical address.

3) Identify business socio-economic status.

4) Recommend the NAICS code most aligned with the requirement.

5) Company points of contact including phone numbers and email addresses.

6) A comprehensive response that addresses the above delineated questions.

7) Identify if you company currently hold any Best-in-Class (BIC) vehicles (e.g., OASIS, GSA GWAC, GSA MAS contracts, etc.), to include the applicable contract number(s).

8) Identify if your company would be interested in competing for this requirement as prime contractor or subcontractor, if solicited. If subcontracting, identify any joint ventures or teaming arrangements that would be pursued.

Responses to this RFI may be reviewed by Government technical experts drawn from staff within DHS and other Federal agencies. The Government may also use selected support contractor personnel to assist in the review of the responses. These support contractors will be bound by appropriate non-disclosure agreements to protect proprietary and source selection information.

All Responses shall be submitted to the Office of Procurement Operations (OPO) at the following email address: Contracting Officer (CO) Danette Williams; Danette.Williams@hq.dhs.gov, and Contract Specialist: Debra.Bryce@hq.dhs.gov no later than NOON, Eastern Time, Tuesday, January 14, 2025.

Note:

The Government reserves the right to hold one-on-one meetings as a result of responses received from this RFI as part of its market research. Meetings may be held with companies who provide comprehensive and relevant responses to the topic and questions in this notice.

mailto:Danette.Williams@hq.dhs.gov mailto:Debra.Bryce@hq.dhs.gov