REDACTED_Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

FOR OPEN MARKET ACQUISITIONS OVER THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD AND FAR 13.5

Revision Date 04/11/2024 Older versions are obsolete and should not be used

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity.

A. Agency: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) B. Contracting activity: Procurement Department (PD) C. Program Office (full name & acronym): Workplace Solutions Department (WSD)

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

This will be a Firm Fixed Price contract. The Government projects award for September 2025 and fiscal year 2025 funds will be used.

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

PBGC's legal professionals require a reliable and comprehensive legal research platform that is critical for researching relevant legal precedents, laws, regulations, business news, and public records and includes extensive content in the following areas:

• Legal treatises (secondary sources)

• Federal, state, international, and local litigation sources

• Financial, property, labor relations, news, and public records

A key feature of this project is the integration of a premium information source covering companies, industries, and corporate finance, which has been highly valued by both legal and non-legal staff for keeping them informed about business developments that impact defined benefit pension plans.

Per the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE), the total estimated value (inclusive of all options and the 52.217-8 extension) is $X,XXX,XXX.X.. The period of performance shall consist of one (1) 12-month Base Period and four (4) 12-month Option Periods, to commence on September 30, 2025.

4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

This action is being taken under the authority of Simplified Procedures for Commercial Items, 41 U.S.C. 1901, Simplified Acquisition Procedures, as implemented by FAR 13.501 and 41 U.S.C.

3304(a)(1) as implemented FAR 6.302-1 – “Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements”.

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

As described at FAR 6.302-1(a)(2), when the supplies or services required by the agency are available only from one responsible source, and no other types of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for. PBGC is unable to acquire the requisite Bloomberg Law subscription through any source other than the Bloomberg Industry Group (“Bloomberg”), due to the licensing restrictions of their proprietary and copyrighted content. Bloomberg does not utilize resellers and maintains its own sales force.

Revision Date 04/11/2024 Older versions are obsolete and should not be used

An analysis of past PBGC usage of Bloomberg Law licensed data demonstrates a strong demand for the Bloomberg exclusive reference material by PBGC staff who need to stay apprised of issues central to PBGC’s mission as well as perform research within news publications that cover critical subjects of PBGC’s mission. PBGC requires access to Bloomberg because this service is key to pension plans that are trusteed to PBGC due to bankruptcy, ERISA, mergers, and acquisitions. The information available in the database is key to the support of PBGC's mission under ERISA.

Bloomberg Law offers content on their web-based research platform that cannot be obtained via any other source, whether in print or online. Many of these materials are noteworthy titles on the topics of ERISA and Labor Law. For example, the following content, functionality and efficiencies, are required by PBGC attorneys and are available only through the Bloomberg Law Legal Research Platform:

a. Bloomberg Subject matter treatises, including but not limited to publications from Bloomberg Law (please see SOW and below for a partial list).

b. Bloomberg Law’s exclusive editorial content and Bloomberg headnotes and Classification outlines.

c. BCite, a legal citator, including exclusive treatment indicators, references to proprietary and exclusive secondary resources available only on Bloomberg Law’s Legal Research Platform.

d. Exclusive news services, including news from the Bloomberg Terminal in real time.

Bloomberg Law products are recognized as the industry standard and ultimate authority in quality, depth, and exhaustive detail for pension related information. The exclusively licensed data (Bloomberg copyrighted treatises, periodicals and newsletters) are not available through any other source and cannot be obtained in pieces or segments on an a la carte basis. The subscription includes primary and secondary legal and non-legal content exclusive to Bloomberg, specialized functionality (such as a citator service), citation checking and hyperlinking functionality, as well as access to all federal dockets and news gathering/disseminating services.

6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies.

The Contracting Officer shall publish the notices required by FAR 5.201.

7. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The cost or price to the Government for this contract action is anticipated to be fair and reasonable.

This will be confirmed on the basis of comparison to an independent Government Estimate in accordance with FAR 13.106-3(a)(2)(vi).

8. A description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Revision Date 04/11/2024 Older versions are obsolete and should not be used

Market research was conducted to determine the viability of possible alternative sources for this subscription by web-based searching as well as reviewing articles, blogs, and product sales pages for web-based legal research platforms that contain the requisite Bloomberg licensed content. In addition, PBGC Information Center regularly reviews other external sources of specialized information in the fields for pensions, bankruptcy, labor, employee benefits, government contracts, and federal / state court issuances. To date, no other publisher has been identified as offers the required licensed products, breadth of coverage, and daily, customized web interface to precisely serve the interests of the PBGC, as the Bloomberg Law Legal Research platform.

As part of the market research, an analysis of other legal research platforms was performed to determine whether they offer the required Bloomberg content. The other legal research platforms researched do not provide access to the requisite content, as summarized in the Market Research Report.

9. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

Select applicable statement:

See Paragraph 6 for synopsis information. To date, no other sources have written to express interest in the acquisition.

☐ See Paragraph 6 for synopsis information. The list of potential sources and analysis has been documented in the Market Research Report (attached).

10. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required.

The agency will continue to monitor and survey the marketplace for legal research resellers to see if the required Bloomberg Law content becomes available through another platform. Additionally, Information Center staff will also continue to research industry standards and will remain alert to the marketing of alternative products which will potentially meet the agency's requirements. As different technologies are developed and as the agency's requirements change, the agency will re-evaluate its requirements to determine what solutions may offer the best value to the agency.

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