FY20- 003 Justification.docx

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(3)

Pursuant to the requirements of the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.3 and in accordance with the requirements of FAR 6.303-1. the use of the statutory authority under FAR Subpart 6.3 is justified by the following facts and rationale required under FAR 6.303-2 as follows:

1. Agency and Contracting Activity.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Procurement Operations (OPO), Science and Technology Acquisition Division (S&TAD) on the behalf of the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) proposes to enter into a contract for the renewal of the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (HSSEDI) Federally Funded Research Development Center (FFRDC) with the MITRE Corporation (MITRE) based on the rationale provided in this Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition.

2. Nature and/or Description of the Action being Approved.

(a) Nature of action: Under the authority implemented by FAR Subpart 6.302-3. OPO/S&T AD proposes to issue a five-year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract to MITRE for the continued operation and management of the HSSEDI FFRDC.

(b) Name and Address of the contractor:

The MITRE Corporation 7515 Colshire Drive McLean, VA 22102-7539

(c) Contract type: IDIQ, the task orders will be issued as cost-plus-fixed-fee (CPFF)

(d) Ceiling Value: The IDIQ will guarantee a minimum of S100,000 with a maximum ceiling value of $862,000.000.

(e) Type of funding: N/A

(f) Year of funding: N/A

(g) Solicitation number: 70RSAT20R00000006

(h) Background information about the requirement:

Under the authority of 6 U.S.C. 185, DHS established the HSSEDI FFRDC through the competitive award of a five-year IDIQ contract with MITRE in March 2009. The establishment of HSSEDI enabled the transition of organizationally dispersed technical efforts provided by other FFRDCs performing for the Department (i.e. DoD, Treasury, FAA) to consolidate under a single DHS sponsored FFRDC, with its sole focus being on supporting the objective of the Department.

Page I of 5

FY20-003

In 2014. S&T, in accordance with FAR subpart 35.017-4(a), conducted a comprehensive review of the use and need for the HSSEDI. S&T coordinated the review with sponsoring DHS components. The review covered HSSEDI’s performance from 2009 through 2014 and provided data on HSSEDI's role in helping DHS accomplish its mission. Based upon the results of comprehensive review, S&T made a determination to continue the sponsorship of the HSSEDI FFRDC with MITRE as the operator.

Therefore, IDIQ contract number HSHQDC-14-D-00006 was negotiated and awarded by OPO/S&TAD on 9/25/2014 for an ordering period of five-years.

In 2018, again. in accordance with FAR subpart 35.017-4(a), S&T conducted a comprehensive review of the use and need for the HSSEDI. The results of the review were submitted to the Senior Official performing the duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology for review and approval in accordance with FAR 35.0 I 7-4(b). The Senior Official performing the duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology approved the continuation of the HSSEDI FFRDC sponsorship with MITRE on 11/28/2018.

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

The HSSEDI with MITRE as its operator, shall continue to provide specialized independent and objective technical and systems engineering expertise to Department components program managers and operating elements in addressing the national homeland security system development and integration issues through various focus areas and core competencies and the activities described in DHS' Systems Engineering Lifecycle (SELC) from Acquisition Decision Event (ADE) 1 through the remainder of the SELC.

4. Identification of Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition.

The statutory authority pem1itting other than full and open competition in this case is 41 U.S.C.3304(a)(3) as implemented by FAR 6.302-3(a)(2)(ii) "To establish or maintain an essential engineering, research, or development capability to be provided by an educational or other nonprofit institution or a federally funded research and development center."

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

(a) The authority cited above is used to justify the continuation of the HSSEDI FFRDC contract with the MITRE Corp., a non-profit entity. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Section 305 of PL 107-296, as codified in 6 U.S.C. 185, the "Act'') authorizes the Secretary, acting through the Under Secretary for Science and Technology, to establish one or more federally funded research and development centers to provide independent analysis of homeland security issues, or to can-y out other responsibilities under the Act.

(b) In accordance with FAR Subpart 35.0l 7-4(a), S&T conducted a comprehensive review to examine the continued use and need for the HSSEDI. S&T coordinated the review with sponsoring DHS components; examining performance of MITRE's operation of HSSEDI from 2014 through 2019. The comprehensive review evaluated the performance and cost-effectiveness of HSSEDI, including an analysis of alternative sources to meet the Department's needs. The report contains numerous metrics on the current contract and concludes that the specific services provided by HSSEDI, with MITRE as the operator, remains a capability that the Department needs.

Page 2 of5

Based upon the continuing and growing complexity of the Department's systems, and the need for an entity that can work with industry and closely with government across the HSE, there is still a continuing need for the HSSEDI FFRDC.

MITRE has provided DHS with system engineering and development capabilities through the operation of HSSEDI since 2009. During this time, it has: (a) met special long-tern, research or development needs of the Department; (b) established long-tern, relationships with multiple DHS Components; (c) gained privileged access to facilities, information, real property and government staff that is beyond that which is common to the norn1al contractual relationship. The effort of MITRE Corporation have enabled them to acquire and retain extensive institutional knowledge that is critical to HSSEDI's capabilities and cannot be easily replaced. Additionally, MITRE has maintained a consistent, reliable, and competitive cost to the Department, and is heavily vested within the Department with several long-term, high profile acquisition programs, including various cyber-security threat vulnerability standards and languages for Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA); the Transportation Security Administration's Technology Infrastructure Modernization and Enterprise Architecture (TIMEA) programs; and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Transformation (CIST) program. Through the essential engineering, research, and development capabilities provided by the MITRE Corp., the Department is effectively able to accomplish tasks that are integral to the mission that deal with improving the physical and cyber security of our nation

Long-term relationships between the Government and MITRE, as the operator of HSSEDI FFRDC provide continuity that attracts high-quality personnel to the FFRDC. This relationship encourages the FFRDC to: maintain currency in its field(s) of expertise; maintain its objectivity and independence; preserve its familiarity with the needs of its sponsor(s) and provide a quick response capability.

6. Description of Efforts Made to Ensure that Offers are Solicited from as Many Potential Sources as is Practicable.

This J&A will also be posted in accordance with FAR 6.305.

7. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable.

The Contracting Officer detern1ines that the anticipated cost(s) will be fair and reasonable based on an analysis of prior acquisition history, including prior task orders issued under the previous IDIQ; as well as price comparisons against extensive independent Government cost estimates that will be developed for each order. furthermore, in accordance with FAR 15.404-1 (c), the Contracting Officer will also use (a) audit information obtained from the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) in a recently issued report,

(b) analysis of economic assumptions used to calculate proposed pricing for proposed IDIQ's ordering period to assist in the performance of the cost analysis.

Additionally, in accordance with FAR Subpart 15.406-2, any task order having a total value over $750,000.00 will be required to submit a Certificate of Cost and Pricing Data.

Given the specialized nature of the services, and the extensive contract history available to date, it is anticipated that MITRE. will be capable of performing at a reasonable price.

8. Description of Market Research.

In accordance with FAR Part 10 and Homeland Security Acquisition Manual (HSAM) 3010. DHS S&T performed extensive market research in August of 2018 for this requirement. Market research included: (1) a review of the acquisition history for the previous HSSEOI contract, (2) available Government databases, (3) commercial databases, (4) professional journals. (5) interviews with knowledgeable individuals in Government, and (6) comprehensive review in accordance with FAR 35.0I 7-4(a).

As detailed in the comprehensive review. alternative sources for providing the services were considered. The evaluation addressed the ability of in-house government personnel, private for-profit and not-for profit contractors, and university-affiliated organizations to provide these services. Additionally, market research indicates there is relatively a small number of organizations in the marketplace for FFRDC contracts. The organizations are currently administering forty-one (41) FFRDC’s in operation across ten (10) Federal agencies.

Based on the results of the comprehensive review, there is no reasonable expectation that competition would yield a meaningful improvement in technical or cost perforn1ance than what has been provided by MITRE as the operator of the HSSEDI FFRDC. Not only does HSSEDI continue to meet the special long-term research and development capabilities, with MITRE as the operator of the FFRDC. HSSEDI retains a tremendous amount of institutional knowledge that forms the basis for the development of new technical capabilities to refine operational processes within DHS.

9. Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other Than Full and Open Competition, N/A

I 0. A Listing of the Sources, if Any That Expressed, in Writing, an Interest in the Acquisition, To date. no other sources have written to express an interest in the acquisition. However. pursuant to FAR Part 6.305, DHS will post this requirement on FedBizOps.

11. A Statement of the Actions, if Any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome Any Barriers to Competition Before Any Subsequent Acquisition for Supplies or Services Required.

As with previous reviews in accordance with FAR 35.017-4(a), a comprehensive review will be conducted by the Department in FY 25 in order to determine if the relationship with MITRE continues to be a benefit to the Government.

FY20-003