Amendment_1_-_Attachment_1_-_Revised_Statement_of_Objectives_(SOO).doc

HSFE50-16-R-0001

ATTACHMENT 1

Statement of Objectives (SOO) Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA)

Hazard Mitigation Technical Assistance Program (HMTAP)

Programmatic Technical Assistance for the Risk Reduction Division (RRD)

September 28th, 2015

BACKGROUND:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

Within FEMA, the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA) is responsible for creating safer communities by reducing loss of life and property, protecting investments and advancing long-term sustainability; enabling individuals to recover more rapidly from floods and other disasters and lessen the financial impact of disasters on the Nation.

Mitigation is a critical component of FEMA’s overall mission, seeking to reduce the Nation’s vulnerability to the impacts of disasters. Effective mitigation can break the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. Mitigation supports preparedness, eases response, speeds recovery and lessens the financial burden on communities and our Nation. The Mitigation mission is to work in partnership to support sustainable, disaster-resilient communities, to avoid or reduce the loss of life, loss of property and financial impact of hazards.

The Hazard Mitigation Technical Assistance Program, (HMTAP) is located in the Risk Reduction Division (RRD) of the FIMA Directorate. It is the mission of the RRD to reduce the risk to life and property, including the existing built environment and future construction, in the pre and post-disaster environments through regulations, local ordinances, land use and building practices, and mitigation projects that reduce or eliminate long-term risk from hazards and their efforts.

The RRD manages the Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) programs, Business Science Branch (BSB), and Floodplain Management Branch (FMB). Each of these areas requires the support and assistance from the Office of Environmental Planning and Historical Preservation (OEHP). FEMA’s HMA consists of disaster and non-disaster grant programs (Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program (PDM) and the Flood Mitigation Assistance Program (FMA). HMA programs reduce community vulnerability, promotes individual and community safety and resilience. HMA programs reduce response and recovery resource needs in the wake of a disaster or incident, which results in a safer community that is less reliant on federal assistance.

The Grants Data Analysis and Tools Branch (GDAT) provides HMA grants data analytics, benefit cost analysis and losses avoided related quantitative/analytic tools, technical assistance and trainings; HMA training courses development and delivery; analysis and development of system business rules and requirements for sustaining the mitigation grants management systems; and manages the HMTAP program. A major component of the HMA program delivery is that the programs and projects be cost effective. Applicants and sub-applicants to the HMA programs use the FEMA Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) Tool to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the mitigation projects that they are submitting for federal funding. As the HMTAP program office the CORs support the various offices in development of contract documents such as the Statement of Objectives (SOO), Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) and arranges for the funding of task orders. The GDAT Branch also serves as the Project Management office for this contract.

The Building Sciences Branch (BSB) provides technical services and develops and produces multi-hazard mitigation guidance that focuses on creating disaster-resilient communities to reduce loss of life and property.

The Floodplain Management Branch (FMB) provides technical assistance to other federal agencies, FEMA regional offices, states, tribes and communities in implementing the federal floodplain management requirements and initiatives.

OEHP provides FEMA programs with policy and technical guidance concerning compliance with Environmental and Historic Preservation (EHP) laws, Executive Orders, and regulations, including but not limited to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), Executive Order 11988, Floodplain Management, and Executive Order 12898, Environmental Justice.

FEMA is divided into ten regional offices. The regional offices are responsible for the delivery of the HMA Programs to the States, Tribes, U.S. territories and Local Governments within their respective regions.

PURPOSE:

To provide expert contractor support services for FEMA/FIMA with programmatic tools development related research to enhance FEMA benefit-cost tools, losses avoidance methodology, mitigation grants related business process streamlining and design, and enterprise data analytics needs for the HMA programs. The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HGMP) is authorized by Section 404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, as amended (the Stafford Act), Title 42, United States Code (U.S.C.) 5170c. The key purpose of HMGP is to ensure that the opportunity to take critical mitigation measures to reduce the risk of loss of life and property from future disasters is not lost during the reconstruction process following a disaster. The Pre‐Disaster Mitigation (PDM) program is authorized by the Stafford Act, 42 U.S.C. 5133. PDM is designed to assist States, territories, federally-recognized tribes, and local communities to implement a sustained pre‐disaster natural hazard mitigation program to reduce overall risk to the population and structures from future hazard events, while also reducing reliance on Federal funding in future disasters. Congressional appropriations provide the funding for PDM. The Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program is authorized by Section 1366 of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, as amended (NFIA), 42 U.S.C. 4104c, with the goal of reducing or eliminating claims under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

The purpose of this Statement of Objectives (SOO) is to obtain subject matter and technical expertise to meet the following objectives:

· To develop, enhance and provide maintenance of FEMA’s benefit-cost analytical toolkit, analytical methodologies and procedures in compliance with requirements of OMB Circular A-94 “Guidelines and Discount rates for Benefit Cost Analysis of Federal Programs.” The primary goal of this objective is to identify, quantify, document and mathematically model the anticipated benefits that result from the completion of grants that fund hazard mitigation activities (enhancements). These benefits may then be incorporated into FEMA’s benefit-cost analysis toolkit. Maintenance of the toolkit includes updates to ensure functionality for future releases of Microsoft Windows or updates to Windows operating system (Windows 7, Windows 8.X, Windows 10, and future releases).

· Develop, enhance and provide maintenance of FEMA’s Microsoft Excel based loss avoidance tool which is utilized to perform economic analysis for completed hazard mitigation projects n a post-disaster environment. The objective is to identify, quantify and mathematically model the benefits that result from the completion of mitigation activities and may be used to respond to Congressional requests to demonstrate the value of mitigation for communities, society and or to the U.S. government.

· Provide quantitative and qualitative analyses through GIS, graphs, tables and other data demonstration techniques to FEMA’s mitigation division which can be used to modernize and simplify currently existing or future analytic services, grant application systems and data warehouses.

· Support re-engineering of HMA grants business rules processes by documenting business functions and business requirements; as well as validating business processes and rules in support of FEMA’s Grant Modernization efforts.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE:

The IDIQ contract shall have one (1) 5-year ordering period.

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE:

The primary place of contract performance will be in the greater Washington D.C. There may be a need to travel to regional offices or conferences on an ad hoc basis for meetings or presentations. Such travel requirements will be identified in task orders as needed. For planning purposes, 6 trips within the continental United States (CONUS) should be anticipated.

CONTRACT OBJECTIVES:

The contract includes the following general objectives. Work will be initiated under task orders issued under the resultant contract. Task orders will contain a detailed performance work statement (PWS) or Statement of Objectives (SOO) providing specific requirements, period of performance, and task order deliverables.

1. The Contractor shall provide expert programmatic assistance to the Benefits Cost Analysis (BCA) program to maximize the hazard mitigation related benefits achieved through the HMA Program. Contractor support activities shall include but are not limited to:

· Update and /or improve the statistical information for natural hazard recurrences, such as, but not limited to seismic recurrence intervals, tornado recurrence intervals, and /or hurricane recurrence intervals. The contractor may also be required to identify other hazard recurrence intervals for hazards that are currently not included in FEMA’s benefit cost analysis toolkit such as drought, climate change or global warming impacts and their influence on hazards.

· Make recommendations to improve and simplify the analytical functionalities and ease-of-use of the current FEMA’s benefit cost analysis toolkit. This may include but is not limited to the development of the tool in a different platform, recommendations to perform quicker analysis, and /or identify projects where benefits can be pre-calculated or pre-analyzed.

· Perform BCA tool maintenance management (sustainment, development, enhancement, and/or maintenance), to include updates in accordance with DHS policies and regulations and current industry practices. This includes section 508 compliance, US Government/DHS/FEMA IT security initiatives, and /or other requirements that may be required during the period of performance for the contract.

· The BCA helpline is maintained by another contract within the HMTAP program. This PTARRD contract will provide technical assistance to questions and /or issues received through FEMA’s benefit cost analysis helpline as it relates to the BCA tool. Programmatic questions will be addressed by the BCA helpline contractor or the FEMA BCA experts. On average, approximately 15 questions per month are received by FEMA’s toll free benefit cost helpline or e-mail regarding benefit cost toolkit installation errors. The contractor will provide technical assistance to resolve installation errors, typically within 48 hours or less.

2. Assist the Grants Data Analysis and Tools Branch (GDAT), Grants Policy Branch (GP), Grants Implementation Branch (GI), Building Sciences Branch (BS), Flood Plain Management (FPM) Branch, Office of Historic Preservation (OEHP) and HMA programs in the development of professional graphic and geospatial (capturing, storing, analyzing and displaying geographically referenced information) support for presentation and reports to FEMA, Congressional, State, Tribal and local audiences.

3. Provide analytical subject matter expertise to streamline grant programs business processes and procedures by improving business efficiencies. Business Analyst, Data Analyst and Grants Management Specialist are the required subject matter experts.

4. Provide a variety of loss avoidance and benefit-cost analysis subject matter experts to support the efficient delivery of mitigation actions in the development of mitigation plans, HMA grants supported by FIMA.

APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS:

All deliverables for this contract must comply (where applicable) with the most recent version of the regulations listed below and are task order specific/dependent.

· Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Public Law (PL) 93-288, as amended

· 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 800

· 40 CFR, Parts 1500-1508

· 44 CFR, Parts 8,9,10,13,14,60 and 206

· 50 CFR, Part 402

· Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977, as amended, PL 95-124

· National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 as Amended by the Biggert-Waters Act of 2012

· Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973

· Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994

· 44 CFR Part 78, Part 79, Part 80 and Part 201

· National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

· National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA)

· Endangered Species Act (ESA)

· Executive Order (EO) 11988 (Floodplain Management )

· EO 11990 (Protection of Wetlands)

· EO 12898 (Environmental Justice)

· EO 12699 (Seismic Safety)

· Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-119 (Technology Transfer Act)

· OMB Circular A-94 (Guidelines and Discount Rates for Benefit Cost Analysis of Federal Programs)

DELIVERABLES AND DELIVERY SCHEDULE:

· To be provided on a task order basis.

from contract award Project Kickoff Meeting

STATUS REPORTING:

The Contractor shall convene with the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR), Project Monitor and/or Technical Monitor on a monthly basis to report and discuss progress on tasks, budget, schedule, and other issues and items that may affect the successful completion of the task.

COORDINATION:

All work shall be coordinated with the Contracting Officer (CO), COR and Program Manager.

GOVERNMENT-FURNISHED EQUIPMENT AND INFORMATION:

The Contractor shall use Government furnished material or equipment to work on projects that require access to FEMA secured applications, web pages, or files. Government furnished equipment provided to the Contractor will be returned to the Government in good working order.

QUALIFICATIONS:

To the maximum extent possible the Contractor personnel shall have expert knowledge and understanding of applicable statutes, regulations, requirements, grants, policies, guidance, and specifications that impact FIMA RRD Building Science Programs, the FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Programs, EHP, and the National Flood Insurance Programs.

STAFFING REQUIREMENTS:

Provide a proper skill mix, subject matter expertise and required number of personnel to effectively meet or exceed all contract objectives.

The Contractor staff shall have extensive experience and expert knowledge in the following areas:

· Benefit cost analysis and tool design

· Loss avoidance methodology development

· Analysis of business requirements and development of process design

· Data analytics and use of business objects is preferred

KEY PERSONNEL:

The contractor’s Program Manager for this contract is designated as “Key Personnel” in accordance with Section C.11 HSAR 3052-215-70 KEY PERSONNEL OR FACILITIES (DEC 2003) of the contract.

The contractor’s Program Manager shall ensure all aspects of the IDIQ and associated task orders are being adhered to, and serve as the main point of contact for the Contracting Officer (CO) and Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) for all issues, including supervisory/management of contractor personnel, human resource management, performance management, and quality assurance/quality improvement management.

The minimum qualifications for the Program Manager are as follows:

· Extensive experience in developing benefit cost analysis methodologies and tools that are compliant with OMB circular A-94 (Federal Grants Cost Effectiveness Requirements)

· Extensive experience in leading and developing detailed and complex business rules and system requirements for Federal grants management systems and customized program/project management

· Demonstrated experience in conducting analytics with large Federal grants datasets

· Demonstrated success in completing multiple projects within the established period of performance (POP) In the event that the Program Manager is unavailable, an alternate Program Manager shall be designated.

Additional Key Personnel may be specified in individual task orders.

ACCESSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS (Section 508):

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology (EIT), they must ensure that it is accessible to people with disabilities. Federal employees and members of the public who have disabilities must have equal access to and use of information and data that is comparable to that enjoyed by non-disabled Federal employees and members of the public.

All EIT deliverables within this statement of objectives shall comply with the applicable technical and functional performance criteria of Section 508 unless exempt. Specifically, the following applicable EIT accessibility standards have been identified:

Section 508 Applicable EIT Accessibility Standards

36 CFR 1194.21 Software Applications and Operating Systems, applies to all EIT software applications and operating systems procured or developed under this statement of objectives including but not limited to GOTS and COTS software. In addition, this standard is to be applied to Web-based applications when needed to fulfill the functional performance criteria. This standard also applies to some Web based applications as described within 36 CFR 1194.22.

36 CFR 1194.22 Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications, applies to all Web-based deliverables, including documentation and reports procured or developed under this statement of objectives. When any Web application uses a dynamic (non-static) interface, embeds custom user control(s), embeds video or multimedia, uses proprietary or technical approaches such as, but not limited to, Flash or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) then 1194.21 Software standards also apply to fulfill functional performance criteria.

36 CFR 1194.31 Functional Performance Criteria, applies to all EIT deliverables regardless of delivery method. All EIT deliverable shall use technical standards, regardless of technology, to fulfill the functional performance criteria.

36 CFR 1194.41 Information Documentation and Support applies to all documents, reports, as well as help and support services. To ensure that documents and reports fulfill the required 1194.31 Functional Performance Criteria, they shall comply with the technical standard associated with Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications at a minimum. In addition, any help or support provided in this statement of objectives that offer telephone support, such as, but not limited to, a help desk shall have the ability to transmit and receive messages using text, telephone (TTY).

Section 508 Applicable Exceptions

Exceptions for this statement of objectives have been determined by DHS and only the exceptions described herein may be applied. Any request for additional exceptions shall be sent to the COTR and determination will be made in accordance with DHS MD 4010.2. DHS has identified the following exceptions that may apply: 36 CFR 1194.3(b) Incidental to Contract, all EIT that is exclusively owned and used by the Contractor to fulfill this statement of objectives does not require compliance with Section 508. This exception does not apply to any EIT deliverable, service or item that will be used by any Federal employee(s) or member(s) of the public. This exception only applies to those contractors assigned to fulfill the obligations of this statement of objectives and for the purposes of this requirement, are not considered members of the public.

Section 508 Compliance Requirements

36 CFR 1194.2(b) (COTS/GOTS products), When procuring a product, each agency shall procure products which comply with the provisions in this part when such products are available in the commercial marketplace or when such products are developed in response to a Government solicitation. Agencies cannot claim a product as a whole is not commercially available because no product in the marketplace meets all the standards. If products are commercially available that meets some but not all of the standards, the agency must procure the product that best meets the standards. When applying this standard, all procurements of EIT shall have documentation of market research that identify a list of products or services that first meet the agency business needs, and from that list of products or services, an analysis that the selected product met more of the accessibility requirements than the non-selected products as required by FAR 39.2. Any selection of a product or service that meets less accessibility standards due to a significant difficulty or expense shall only be permitted under an undue burden claim and requires authorization from the DHS Office of Accessible Systems and Technology (OAST) in accordance with DHS MD 4010.2.