JEFO Exceeding the SAT ODOS III_Redacted.pdf

Justification for Exception to Fair Opportunity, Exceeding the Simplified Acquisition Threshold, Outcome-based Delivery and DevSecOps Services

(ODOS) III

REFERENCE: Justification Log Number: FY24-0106/FY24-0105 and PR Number:

1. Agency and Contracting Activity.

The Department of Homeland Security, (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Office of Contracting (OCON), proposes to award a delivery/task order or modify an existing delivery/task order on behalf of Transformation Delivery Division (TDD), pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(b)(2), Exceptions to the fair opportunity process.

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

In 2022, USCIS solicited and awarded four (4) Outcome-based Delivery and DevSecOps Services (ODOS) III Task Orders under the NIH/CIO/SP3 IDIQ contract. ODOS III vendors are part of team based DevSecOps approach, participating with federal employees and other contractors, to deliver high-quality mission value that supports processing over 80% of the agency’s workload. Based on the understanding of the agency’s needs at the time of the ODOS III solicitation, TDD had determined that a limit of thirty-nine (39) DevSecOps teams would be sufficient. Over the course of the contract performance period, USCIS has required TDD to responded to an ever-increasing number of urgent requirements. Previous efforts to re-prioritize existing work being performed by the DevSecOps teams are no longer possible, since the number of urgent needs has far exceeded the work identified as normal operations. As a result, TDD is no longer able to accommodate newly identified agency priorities while also ensuring sufficient sustainability and performance of the systems, improving code quality, addressing and eliminating system defects, and refactoring legacy functionality.

DHS/USCIS/Office of Information Technology (OIT)/Transformation Delivery Division (TDD) intends to award a modification to task orders 70SBUR22F00000112 – ADG-REI, 70SBUR22F00000113 – DV United, 70SBUR22F00000114 - Softrams, 70SBUR22F00000197 Alpha Omega without considering other NIH/CIO/SP3 awardees pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B)

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

TDD has an immediate need to increase the overall number DevSecOps teams allowable on ODOS III from thirty-nine (39) to forty-five (45) teams. This change will not impact the capacity of each contract (no change in pricing or CLINS) however, it will increase the overall effort established in the solicitation and each resulting Task Order thereby making more optional CLINS available for www.uscis.gov

Rev: 10/13/2023

JEFO, Exceeding the SAT, ODOS III Justification Log Number: FY24-0106/FY24-105 exercise. This increase will allow TDD to obtain support from the existing ODOS III vendors using previously priced and evaluated optional CLINS.

In April 2024, USCIS Leadership identified a set of emergent, high priority initiatives that TDD needed to address in addition to their current workload. Since that time, additional urgent immigration initiatives have been introduced under Executive Orders and DHS that directly impact USCIS and other DHS Components. The emergent, high priority needs include, but are not limited to the following:

• DHS establishment of a new process to Promote the Unity and Stability of Families, which considers requests for certain noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens.

• Resolution alien number (A#) consolidation issues identified during the USCIS Deputy

Director’s recent visit to the New York Asylum Office. This issue affects many existing cases as well as all new asylum cases being received.

• Increase in the dedicated support to Southwest Boarder (SWB) for the daily emerging priorities that result from fluctuating and unpredictable processing needs.

• Revision and expansion of the workload assignment functionality in the USCIS Electronic Immigration System (ELIS) functionality to allow USCIS to shift to its workforce to address more urgent workloads regardless of adjudication officer location.

• Provide dedicated capacity to address unresolved technical debt, production support and ELIS operations issues that have been significantly impacting adjudications officer.

• Prioritize development and support for the for EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which has been lagging in its response to the statutory mandate to provide electronic services for this program.

• Overhaul the G-28 Attorney/Representative Account Management functionality to address significant operational challenges by external users, and functional issues within the system associated with the current architecture and process designs.

Since the work required falls within the existing performance requirements of ODOS III, TDD has a need to exercise additional optional CLINS on these task orders. The increase to the number teams allowable under the ODOS III contract is needed to permit TDD to increase its current delivery and support capacity and ensure it can manage the strategic and emergent mission critical initiatives for USCIS between now and the award of the follow-on contract, ODOS IV.

These modifications will take effect starting with Option Period IV 7/25/24 – 1/24/25 and will continue through to the end of the ODOS III contract period of performance.

4. Statutory exception and supporting rationale.

The applicable statutory FAR citation and basis for using an exception to fair opportunity process is:

□ 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.

JEFO, Exceeding the SAT, ODOS III Justification Log Number: FY24-0106/FY24-105 x FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B). Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.

□ FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C). The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order.

□ FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(D). It is necessary to place an order to satisfy a minimum guarantee. The minimum order guarantee of [insert dollar amount] as set forth in the contract has not yet been awarded.

□ FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(E). A statute expressly authorizes or requires that the purchase be made from a specified source.

Rationale:

This justification supports the agency’s requirement to continue ODOS III support. TDD needs additional DevSecOps teams to manage the new strategic and emergent mission critical initiatives resulting from DHS, White House and Congressional mandates for USCIS. The delivery timelines of the requirements necessitate adding 8 teams to the existing ODOS III Task Orders, to supplement the current resources that are already attempting to support this and related workloads. Waiting for the new ODOS IV recompete to be awarded in September FY25 would result in delivery delays of the emergent mission critical initiatives by 15-18 months.

Market research conducted for the competitive re-compete currently in progress indicated that there are contractors capable of performing services required by ODOS III. However, based on the research conducted, it has been concluded that only the current task order vendors have the specific skills, knowledge and experience needed to provide the required specialized services at the level of quality required at this time. The nature of the requirement is complex and requires large-scale coordination and mobilization of development teams. There is also a significant learning curve associated with a new vendor commencing to support these projects. The time between a potential competitive short-term award action and the need date for services would not allow sufficient time for recruiting, hiring, background checks, entry-on-duty, and most importantly, a transition period with knowledge transfer. Waiting on the award of a new contract introduces a risk of loss of knowledge, plus the complication of trying to address these high priority needs coincident with the transition of work from old vendors to the new.

Further, the inability to conduct a proper in-depth transition will result in failure to deliver on key USCIS priorities. The current task order vendors are currently capable to provide required staffing and the level of quality within this short timeline with all necessary teams in place as well as extensive program knowledge to continue operations to complete the projected tasks and to transition ongoing activities to the new competitive awardee.