Request for Information (RFI) - PA-TAC VI.docx

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION/SOURCES SOUGHT

PUBLIC ASSISTANCE – TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CONTRACT (PA-TAC) VI

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), on behalf of the Public Assistance (PA) Division under the Recovery Directorate and the Office of Response and Recovery, has developed this Request for Information (RFI) to solicit market research information from industry.

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. It is not a Request for Proposal, a Request for Quotation, an Invitation for Bids, a Solicitation, or an indication the Government will contract for the items contained in the RFI. This RFI is part of a Government market research effort to determine the scope of industry capabilities and interest and will be treated as information only. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responses to this RFI are strictly voluntary and the Government will not pay respondents for information provided in response to this RFI. Responses to this RFI will not be returned and respondents will not be notified of the result of the review. If a Solicitation is issued, it will be announced on the Federal Business Opportunities, website www.fbo.gov, at a later date, and all interested parties must respond to that Solicitation announcement separately from any response to this announcement.

This RFI does not restrict the Government's acquisition approach on a future Solicitation.

NO PROPOSALS ARE BEING REQUESTED OR ACCEPTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS SYNOPSIS AND NO CONTRACT SHALL BE AWARDED AS A RESULT OF THIS RFI.

No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this RFI or any follow up information requests.

The purpose of this RFI is to receive industry comments on the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) including (but not limited to) technical questions and comments, contract pricing considerations, contract type, business size of capable and interested companies, and most applicable NAICS Code for the competitively contracted services for the Public Assistance (PA) Technical Assistance Contracts.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/FEMA’s mission is helping people before, during, and after disasters. One of FEMA’s responsibilities is to ensure the effectiveness of emergency response personnel in responding to emergencies and disasters. Types of disasters and emergencies that could happen in the continental United States, as well as outside the continental United States locations include, but are not limited to, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, cyclones, tornadoes, blizzards, acts of terrorism, tsunamis, and avalanches.

The Contractor shall provide support to the Public Assistance (PA) Program and FEMA in the Continental United States (CONUS) and Overseas Continental United States (OCONUS).

The PA program is primarily supported by federal employees from all ten FEMA Regions and FEMA Headquarters (HQ), to include Federal Reservist Cadres, Cadre of Response Employees (COREs), and Incident Management (IM) COREs. However, there is a need for professionals (technical in an A&AS capacity) and non-professional personnel to support FEMA staff in delivering the PA Program. This is currently (and historically has been) provided through contracting services, namely the Public Assistance - Technical Assistance Contracts (PA-TAC). These contracts have been a vital part of the PA program and have allowed FEMA to successfully provide disaster assistance through thousands of state, local government, tribe, and private non-profit PA projects after hundreds of disasters since 1997.

The Government desires that respondents offer their experience and recommendations on the following questions and issues related to the draft PWS requirements. The Government recommends that you first review the draft PWS so that you may have a better insight on the questions below. The NAICS code for this procurement is 541611.

1. Is the draft PWS clear, concise, and/or sufficient enough to develop and submit the required information in response to a Request For Proposal (RFP)?

2. Is 30-days a sufficient amount of time for a contractor to prepare a proposal given the scenario of a full trade-off best value source selection requiring a technical and price proposal and past performance references? If 30-days is not sufficient, please provide a reasonable timeframe to prepare a proposal.

3. What is your company’s ability to perform all the requirements summarized within this notice. Provide information on current capabilities, to include available qualified, trained, and experienced staff, and how quickly you can mobilize the requisite qualified staff to support concurrent FEMA operations.

4. If you are a certified Small Business, what is your company’s ability to meet all the requirements of this contract while conforming to FAR 52.219-14(e)(1), Limitations on Subcontracting?

5. Does your company have the financial resources to meet the Government requirements for the Base Contract requirements and deliverables as detailed in the draft PWS? Can your company sustain out-of-pocket expenditures necessary to fulfill all the requirements of Base Contract given that the Government cannot guarantee income beyond the established minimum amount specified in the contract? Specifically address the following:

a. Can your company develop, administer, and document compliance of PA-related training (PWS 4.4.4.) for all personnel as part of the Base Contract given the proposed guaranteed minimum funding of the contract (PWS 2.3.d.)?

b. Can your company provide all the services required under PWS 4. Other Appliable Conditions, given the proposed guaranteed minimum funding of the contract (PWS 2.3.d.)?

6. One of the Government’s principal objectives is to obtain the lowest fully-burdened labor rates practicable. After reviewing the draft PWS, what additions or revisions would you recommend to enable your firm to propose the lowest fully-burdened labor rates, and what tradeoffs or risks would those features create (if any)?

7. Are the proposed Labor Categories and corresponding quantities in PWS 2.3, Labor Categories sufficient? Are there Labor Categories we should consider including/eliminating?

8. Discuss any concerns, comments or recommendations you may have with the attached draft PWS.

No inquiries will be answered at this time and respondents shall not be notified of the results of the market research. Again, this document is merely for market research and planning purposes only and does not constitute a commitment, implied, or otherwise, that a procurement action will be issued nor will the Government pay or reimburse for information solicited or produced and may not be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract. In the event a solicitation is developed, it will be assigned a formal RFP number and the announcement will be published on www.fbo.gov.

Vendor comments may be incorporated and used to develop the final PWS as well as the solicitation.

Responders to this RFI will not automatically be notified of any potential solicitation; therefore interested parties should be vigilant in looking for and must respond to the official solicitation announcement when it is posted on www.fbo.gov.

Submissions must be submitted electronically as a Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF); no other document format or type will be accepted. It is important to note that there is a system wide size limitation on e-mail attachments of 5MB per e-mail message. It is highly recommended that respondents check the total size of the response before sending and if necessary, submit responses on sequential e-mails. When submitting your capability statement limit the page count to 3 to include cover page. In addition to the capability statement, please provide your answers in the attached Q&A spreadsheet.

All responses to the RFI shall be submitted by email to the following

· Sharon Edwards, Contracting Officer, DHS/FEMA. E-mail address: sharon.edwards3@fema.dhs.gov

· Erich Ducote, Contracting Officer, Email address: erich.ducote@fema.dhs.gov

· Subject Line shall include the following title: “RFI Response – (Company Name), PA-TAC VI

Responses should be received no later than Wednesday, January 28, 2026, 2:00 pm ET. No phone calls accepted.