Notification BNJ SAM.pdf

Rev. 3/10/26

United States Department of Agriculture Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity

Over the Simplified Acquisition Threshold Identification Number: 1170585

In accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)16.507-6 (b), the following justification documents the exception to fair opportunity.

(1) Mission Area and Contracting Activity.

Requisition Number: 1170585

Requesting Activity Agency: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food Safety Inspection Service, Office on Chief information Officer

Contracting Activity: United States Department of Agriculture, Departmental Administration, Office of Contracting and Procurement, Procurement Operations Division, 301 S. Howes Street, Suite 321, Fort Collins, CO 80521.

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

This J&A authorizes and approves the sole source award modification to award 12314426F0072 that was competitively solicited February 2, 2026, for Databricks. The use of this platform will enable agency personnel to ingest, search, analyze, and act on agency documents and operational data, automate regulatory workflows, and capture institutional knowledge. The platform will integrate with existing FSIS systems and support current and future use cases, including regulatory Q&A, inspection decision support, document analysis, and predictive risk modeling, using approaches such as model fine-tuning and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

The platform will leverage large language models (LLMs), predictive analytics, and environmental intelligence to improve food safety outcomes and operational efficiency.

This award will provide the critical resources and expertise needed to meet FSIS home-grown AI initiatives

CARAHSOFT TECHNOLOGY CORP

11493 SUNSET HILLS ROAD

RESTON VA 20190-5328

UEI: DT8KJHZXVJH5

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

This additional work will provide critical resources and expertise needed to meet FSIS home-grown AI initiatives listed below:

United States Department of Agriculture Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity

Over the Simplified Acquisition Threshold Identification Number: 1170585

Rev. 3/10/26

Sought on GSA received over one hundred responses and was concluded Databricks to be the only commercial product to meet all FSIS detailed requirements.

(6) A determination by the Contracting Officer that the order represents a fair and reasonable price.

Original award 12314426F0072 was competitively solicited as a name brand Databricks commercial product on February 2, 2006, via National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement to 232 vendors. The lowest priced technically acceptable quote was awarded to Carahsoft Technology for base and one option year.

The Contracting Officer anticipates fair and reasonable pricing and awarding on the current contract assures pricing consistent with historical pricing paid on initial award that was competitively solicited.

Notification will be publicized on SAM.gov for current modification notices.

(7) Any other facts supporting use of other than full and open competition, such as:

N/A

(8) A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition of the supplies or services required.

To enhance competition and remove barriers for subsequent similar acquisitions, the agency will conduct regular market research and engage with industry to try to identify new sources. Due to the sensitive nature of similar requirements, these efforts may not overcome the barriers posed by the specialized nature and proprietary techniques of the current requirement