JEFO_JA _NIH_ODEO_7571PS26R00030_75N98026F00002 .pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity Agency: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Requiring Activity: National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of the Director (OD), Executive Office (ODEO)

Contracting Activity: Office of Mission Acquisition Solutions (OMAS)

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

☐ New Requirement ☒ Sole Source Order against Contract Number: 75N98022D00036 ☐ Modification to Existing Delivery/Task Order/Contract Number

Pricing:

☐ Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) ☒ Time & Materials (T&M) ☐ Cost Type

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value)

The purpose of this acquisition is to procure acquisition and procurement support services for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of the Director (OD), Executive Office (ODEO), to ensure continuity of acquisition operations during a six-month bridge period while the Government completes the competitive follow-on acquisition.

The contractor shall provide advisory, analytical, and administrative acquisition support services necessary to sustain ongoing procurement operations across the Office of the Director. Services include supporting all phases of the acquisition lifecycle, preparing acquisition documentation, administering the NIH Procurement Online Tracking System (POTS), supporting procurement tracking and reporting (Data Calls), coordinating acquisition package submissions, facilitating acquisition planning activities, and providing administrative support associated with implementation of the Office of the Director acquisition centralization initiative.

During the bridge period, contractor personnel will continue supporting approximately 700 forecasted acquisition actions across 78 Office of the Director organizations, including new contract awards, contract modifications, option exercises, and recompete actions supporting mission-critical NIH programs. Contractor support is also essential to maintaining continuity during the transition from PRISM to the HHS Contract Acquisition System (HCAS), ensuring uninterrupted acquisition operations during this enterprise-wide modernization effort.

The proposed bridge task order will be awarded to Jefferson Consulting Group LLC under the BPSS III IDIQ contract. The anticipated period of performance is August 13, 2026, through February 12, 2027. The estimated value of this six-month bridge task order is

4. Identification of the exception to fair opportunity and the supporting rationale.

☒ The agency’s need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays. RFO 16.507-6(b)(1)

☐ 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. RFO 16.507-6(b)(2)

☐ 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 are given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order. RFO 16.507-6(b)(3)

☐ It is necessary to place an order to satisfy a minimum guarantee. RFO 16.507-6(b)(4)

☐ For orders exceeding the SAT, a statute expressly authorizes or requires that the purchase be made from a specified source. RFO 16.507-6(b)(5)

There is an urgent need to award a follow-on task order prior to August 13, 2026, to ensure uninterrupted professional staffing support for the ODEO, which is integral in meeting NIH’s mission but also in furthering HHS’s mission.

Due to a series of unforeseen federal and Departmental actions, a new competitive professional services staffing contract/task order was not awarded as originally planned.

These unforeseen events include reductions in staff, uncertainty about the organizational structure of NIH’s Office of Acquisition and OMAS, uncertainty of consolidated and centralized contracting offices, large-scale reductions in contracts resulting in increased workload for remaining contracting officers to terminate for convenience and close out the eliminated contracts, immediate compliance with numerous Executive Orders, and two federal government shutdowns.

To provide context for the circumstances that have necessitated a shortened procurement timeline and, consequently, limited competition, please refer to the timeline outlined below:

Due to the events mentioned above a 12-month follow-on contract was signed to ensure there was no lapse in service and to allow sufficient time for the procurement of the recompetition. While the intent was to compete this fairly, the events of 2025 as described below, had a continuing effect into fiscal year 2026.

During the first quarter of 2025, multiple federal and Departmental initiatives significantly reduced staffing capacity in both the contracting offices and the program offices requiring contract support. These actions included:

• The federal hiring freeze issued January 20, 2025;

• The “Fork in the Road” Deferred Resignation notifications issued January 28, 2025;

• The separation of probationary employees on February 14, 2025;

• The Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) offerings; and

• The Reduction in Force (RIF) notifications issued April 1, 2025.

Multiple offices were eliminated in entirety in the reductions. Amid these reductions, the March 20, 2025, Executive Order “Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement” and the March 27, 2025, HHS announcement to “Make America Healthy Again” had substantial impacts to ASPR procurements. Pursuant to Departmental guidance and in coordination with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), ASPR was directed to review and reduce, via negotiated terminations for convenience, approximately $2 billion in contract actions, including interagency agreements for assisted acquisitions.

Additionally, the March 27, 2025, reorganization announcement indicated that the number of HHS divisions would be reduced from 28 to 15, core administrative functions would be centralized, and with those reductions, NIH’s acquisition workforce was severely affected.

As a result of April 1, 2025, Reduction in Force (RIFs) and related staff reductions, NIH’s capacity to execute new procurement actions was further constrained.

In July 2025, NIH executed a new order under the parent contract, extending performance through July 2026. This extension preserved existing capabilities while providing time to assess NIH’s long-term organizational status and enduring requirements. At that time, the Centers were simultaneously directed to explore alternative contract staffing solutions, as the current IDIQ contract would terminate on August 12, 2026.

Shortly thereafter, the federal government shut down from October 1 through November 12, 2025, the longest shutdown in American history. The Contracting and program personnel funded by annual appropriations who were neither exempt nor excepted were furloughed during this period. The Contracting and program personnel responsible for the re-competition of the professional staffing contracts were included in the furlough.

Once the continuing resolution to fund the government through January 30, 2026, was passed and the language indicated in the draft FY2026 appropriations bill indicated that NIH would be funded. Thereafter NIH resumed work on the acquisition packages to procure professional staffing services aligned with enduring requirements and the reorganization.

In parallel, HHS implemented a department-wide procurement consolidation. OMAS, responsible for professional staffing and IT services, was formally established on January 20, 2026.

A second, shorter government shutdown from January 31, 2026, through February 3, 2026, again disrupted procurement activities.

The cumulative delays described above have already placed these procurements at significant risk of service interruption. Any additional delays will result in gaps in mission-critical support.

Given the current task order’s August 12, 2026, expiration, this schedule would result in a multi-week or longer gap in professional staffing support services for the Immediate Office.

This could lead to a lapse in support for the POTS system and a loss of annual appropriations for NIH. Accordingly, full and open competition and fair opportunity process at this time would result in an unacceptable delay in performance. A short-duration sole source bridge is required to ensure continuity of these mission-critical services while the competitive process is completed.

Jefferson Consulting Group LLC is currently providing Acquisition and Procurement Support Services under Task Order 75N98022D00036 75N98025F00001 awarded under the BPSS III IDIQ contract, with a period of performance from August 13, 2025, through August 12, 2026.

The proposed bridge task order is a follow-on to the existing task order and is necessary to maintain uninterrupted acquisition support services while the Government completes the follow-on procurement.

The current requirement supports mission-critical acquisition operations throughout the NIH Office of the Director. In addition to providing advisory and administrative acquisition support, the contractor is responsible for administering and maintaining the Office of the Director's Procurement Online Tracking System (POTS), the system used by all NIH Office of the Director organizations to initiate acquisition requests. POTS serves as the entry point for procurement requests that result in the creation of requisitions necessary to support contract awards, contract modifications, and other acquisition actions. Contractor personnel establish and maintain user accounts, perform user provisioning, provide customer support and troubleshooting, coordinate acquisition package submissions, maintain procurement tracking information, generate management reports, and support the acquisition review and approval workflow. Interruption of these services would delay the intake, routing, and processing of procurement requests across the Office of the Director, adversely affecting the Government's ability to initiate and execute mission-critical acquisition actions in a timely manner.

The contractor also supports implementation of the Office of the Director acquisition centralization initiative and assists with the transition from PRISM to the HHS Contract Acquisition System (HCAS). These responsibilities require extensive familiarity with NIH acquisition policies, internal workflows, procurement systems, and active acquisition actions.

The Office of the Director currently forecasts approximately 700 acquisition actions supporting 78 organizations, during this 6-month frame. These actions include new contract awards, contract modifications, option exercises, and recompete actions that must continue without interruption to support NIH's mission. A lapse in contractor support during the bridge period would adversely affect acquisition planning, procurement processing, fourth-quarter execution activities, procurement tracking, and timely award of mission-critical acquisitions.

Although market research confirmed that multiple contractors possess the technical capability to perform acquisition and procurement support services, the Government determined that transitioning performance to another contractor for a six-month bridge would introduce unnecessary operational risk and would not provide sufficient time for an orderly transition. A new contractor would require onboarding, security processing, familiarization with NIH acquisition procedures, training on NIH-specific systems, and extensive knowledge transfer before assuming responsibility for active procurement activities. These transition activities would reduce productivity, delay ongoing acquisitions, and increase the likelihood of disruption during a period of significant acquisition workload.

The bridge period also coincides with continued implementation of the Office of the Director acquisition centralization initiative and the transition from PRISM to HCAS.

Maintaining the incumbent contractor during these concurrent initiatives minimizes operational risk, preserves institutional knowledge, and ensures continuity of acquisition support while these enterprise changes are implemented. Replacing the incumbent during this period would significantly increase transition risk and adversely affect continuity of operations for NIH.

Awarding this bridge task order to Jefferson Consulting Group LLC represents the most efficient approach because it preserves continuity of operations, avoids unnecessary transition costs, minimizes disruption to active procurement actions, and allows the Government sufficient time to complete the competitive follow-on acquisition.

5. Fair and Reasonable Price/Cost Determination by the Contracting Officer

I hereby determine that the anticipated price/cost for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. This task order will be against the parent contract, 75N98022D00036. The labor category price lists for each company have been established through the over-arching contracts and have been reviewed to ensure reasonable pricing. However, HHS reserves the right to further negotiate price reductions as allowable by the FAR.

In addition, under this sole source, the Contracting Officer will further assess price reasonableness by comparing the proposed labor categories, hours, and rates to (1) the rates and labor mix on the current task order for these services, (2) the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE), and (3) the awarded labor category rates of other relevant awardees. Any significant variances will be documented and, as appropriate, used as the basis for seeking price reductions to ensure the Government pays fair and reasonable prices for the bridge period.

6. Any Other Facts Supporting this Justification In addition to the factors described above, this action is expressly intended as a short-duration bridge to a fully competitive task order to be issued under the best GWAC available. NIH and OMAS intend to develop the acquisition package and supporting requirements for the competitive follow-on action. This sole-source bridge will provide the minimum additional time necessary to develop the acquisition package, conduct the competition, and award the follow-on task order without a lapse in mission-critical services.

7. Agency Actions to Take or Remove Barriers That Led to Fair Opportunity Exception The Government intends to establish a competitive task order for these services against the best suited GWAC which is designed to provide federal agencies with comprehensive, non-IT professional services worldwide. A solution that is also designated a Best-In-Class (BIC) contract. The competitive task order is anticipated to be awarded prior to the expiration date of this sole source action.

8. Technical/Requirements Certification By my signature below, I certify that the supporting data under my review which is included in this Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity is accurate and complete.

Program Manager Name

Position Title Email Address Phone Signature

Program Manager Supervisor (or one level above Program Manager) Name Position Title Email Address Phone Signature

9. Contracting Officer’s Approval I hereby certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge. I approve this sole source justification subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and supplies herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Name Position Title Email Address Phone Signature