Request for Quote FHF-23-Q-0093.pdf

Federal Housing Finance Agency Constitution Center 400 7th Street, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20219

Telephone: (202) 649-3800 Facsimile: (202) 649-1071 www.fhfa.gov

DATE: July 27, 2023

TO: PROSPECTIVE VENDORS

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (RFQ) – FHF-23-Q-0093

Subject to the Availability of Funds

PROJECT: ABS/MBS LOAN LEVEL DATASETS

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation and request for quotes (RFQ) for commercial items in accordance with the procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 12 - Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR part 13 - Simplified Acquisition Procedures, with FAR part 12 taking precedence per FAR 13.500(b)’s reference to FAR 12.102(c). This announcement constitutes the only solicitation with quotes requested.

Funds are not presently available for performance. The Government’s obligation is contingent upon the availability of funds from which payment can be made. No legal liability on the part of the Government for any payment may arise until funds are made available to the Contracting Officer for this order.

This requirement is considered unrestricted under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 513210 – Software Publishers – with a standard size of $47M.

FHFA is seeking to obtain asset-backed security/mortgage-backed security (ABS/MBS) loan level dataset licenses. Specifically, FHFA is seeking data to use for modeling and monitoring the current and projected financial credit risk exposure of the Federal Home Loan Banks and the Enterprises’ investments in private label securities (PLS) deals.

The anticipated period of performance is for one (1) 12-month base period with nine (9), 12-month option periods, if exercised.

While not guaranteed, award is anticipated by October 1, 2023. The period of performance is anticipated to be:

Base Year 1 October 2023 – 30 September 2024 Option Year One (1) 1 October 2024 – 30 September 2025 Option Year Two (2) 1 October 2025 – 31 September 2026 Option Year Three (3) 1 October 2026 – 31 September 2027 Option Year Four (4) 1 October 2027 – 31 September 2028 Option Year Five (5) 1 October 2028 – 31 September 2029 Option Year Six (6) 1 October 2029 – 31 September 2030 Option Year Seven (7) 1 October 2030 – 31 September 2031 Option Year Eight (8) 1 October 2031 – 31 September 2032 Option Year Nine (9) 1 October 2032 – 31 September 2033

Attachment A addresses the work requirements as a Statement of Work for the required services.

Questions, Suggested Alternate Terms, and Answers

Quoters are invited to submit any questions or suggested alternate terms (including changes to the solicitation, contract clauses, statement of assumptions, or other terms). FHFA will consider all input and attempt to balance the needs of all parties.

The Contracting Officer is the sole point of contact for this procurement. Questions regarding the solicitation or other concerns are to be submitted electronically to the Contracting Officer via e-mail to Jennifer.Sellers@fhfa.gov. Questions are to be submitted no later than 3:00 PM Eastern Time on August 4, 2023. Vendors are requested to use the question format included as Attachment D to this solicitation. Questions, any written responses, or amendments will be posted at the Contract Opportunities webpage (please see https://sam.gov/content/opportunities for more information).

FAR References Any FAR clauses or provisions referenced may be obtained at www.acquisition.gov/far. Also, any reference to offeror or offer has the same meaning as quoter or quote for this solicitation.

The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2023-04, June 2, 2023.

Submission Instructions Quoters shall be registered in the System for Award Management as stated in FAR 52.204- 7(b)(1).

Therefore, FAR 52.204-7 and FAR 52.204-16 are hereby incorporated by reference into the solicitation.

A Quoter that is not actively registered in the System for Award Management at the time of quote submission will not have its quote considered and will not be eligible for award.

Each email quotation including attachments cannot exceed 50 MB because it may be rejected by FHFA’s server. If your entire quotation exceeds 50MB in size, please divide your quotation into appropriate smaller emails.

If a Quoter chooses to submit a quotation, the quote must remain valid for a minimum of 120 calendar days.

Quotes are due no later than 3:00PM, Eastern Time, on August 23, 2023. Late submissions, modifications, and revisions will be managed in accordance with FAR 52.212-1(f).

FHFA’s Contracting Officer reserves the right to reject the quotation as non-compliant if the quotation takes exception to any of the terms of the RFQ, includes assumptions, or does not conform to the RFQ’s submission instructions.

mailto:Jennifer.Sellers@fhfa.gov https://sam.gov/content/opportunities http://www.acquisition.gov/far

All quotations must include a cover page (which is not included in page limitations) with the following information:

1. RFQ Number

2. Quoter’s Name

3. Subcontractor Name(s), If Applicable

4. Quoter Tax Identification Number (TIN)

5. Quoter System for Award Management (SAM) Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

6. Contact Name

7. Contact Email address

8. Contact telephone number

9. Complete business mailing address

10. The following statement “The Quoter takes no exception and completely accepts all the terms and conditions in the RFQ and subsequent amendments.”

Volume I: Technical Quotation

The Quoter’s technical submission should demonstrate the firm’s capability to perform the work requirements outlined in the Attachment A. Volume I shall include separate sections within the volume outlining the following items:

Technical Capability (Evaluation Factor 1).

Part A: The Technical Capability shall describe, in narrative form, the Quoter’s proposed overall capability to fulfill the overall requirements of Attachment A. The quoter shall provide sufficient information for the Government to determine its level of confidence in the ability of the quoter to perform the requirements of the RFQ, including the requirements of the Statement of Work, based on an assessment of its written technical quotation. The quoter shall provide a summary of its understanding of delivering ABS/MBS loan level datasets.

Part B: The quoter shall provide the following:

1) A sample dataset containing all the ABS/MBS data elements identified in the SOW for all deals and pools issued during a period of one month prior to June 2023. The sample dataset must be supplied in electronic format (.txt preferred).

2) A variable list (data dictionary) showing the data fields that will be supplied with the ABS/MBS sample dataset. The list shall include a description for each variable.

Past Performance (Evaluation Factor 2). FHFA will evaluate recent and relevant past performance of each Quoter. This past performance may include prime or subcontractors you consider most relevant in demonstrating your ability to perform the proposed effort. However, you must include at least one reference for any subcontractor that will perform 50% or more of the work.

Quoters may submit up to three (3) examples of contracts performed by the Quoter or subcontractors, demonstrating recent and relevant past performance. Recent is defined as within the last three (3) years from the date of this RFQ. Relevant is defined as work similar in scope, complexity and magnitude to that identified in the work requirements defined in Attachment A.

Please include the following information, limited to no more than two (2) pages for each past performance example:

1) Customer Name and Address

2) Contract Number/Contract Title/Contract Type

3) Delivery Schedule/Period of Performance

4) Contract Value

5) Description of the work performed

6) Customer Point of Contact (Name, Telephone Number and Address) for Business Manager and/or Technical Manager

7) Contracting Officer’s (or Private Sector Equivalent) name, telephone number and email address.

8) Current status, e.g. completed and/or in progress, start and estimated completion dates.

9) Key personnel, please identify those individuals who worked on the relevant project and are also proposed for this effort

10) A brief narrative of why your firm believes this reference is relevant to the proposed order

FHFA may use any other available information in the evaluation of past performance.

Conformance with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Accessibility Requirements (Section 508).

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and Cloud-Based Solutions including Software as a Service (SaaS) products (no development or customization): Provide an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) for each commercially available Information and Communication Technology (ICT) item that will be developed, procured, maintained, or used under this contract.

1. Create the ACR using the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT®) Version

2.1 or later, located at https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat.

2. Complete each ACR in accordance with the instructions provided in the VPAT® template. Each ACR must address the applicable Section 508 requirements referenced in the Statement of Work/Performance Work Statement/Specifications.

3. Address each standard individually and with specificity, and clarify whether conformance is achieved throughout the entire ICT Item (for example - user functionality, administrator functionality, and reporting), or only in limited areas of the ICT Item. Each ACR shall state exactly how the ICT meets the applicable standards in the remarks/explanations column, or through additional narrative. All "Not Applicable" https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat responses must be explained in the remarks/explanations column or through additional narrative.

4. Provide a description of the evaluation methods used to support Section 508 conformance claims. The Agency reserves the right, prior to making an award decision, to perform testing on some or all of the Vendor’s proposed ICT items to validate Section 508 conformance claims made in the ACR.

Page Limitation. Excluding cover pages, past performance, and Conformance with ICT Accessibility Requirements (Section 508); the technical quotation (including all non-price factors and other attachments) is limited to thirty (30) pages. The thirty (30) page limitation for the technical quotation submission shall be treated as a maximum. If exceeded, the excess pages will not be considered in the evaluation of the quotation. The excess electronic pages will not be reviewed. The font and format should be of readable quality. Excessively small font may be rejected or not evaluated at the Contracting Officer’s discretion.

Quoters shall not include any price information in the technical quotation. For the overall technical quotation, a recitation or paraphrasing of the requirements already identified in the work requirements will not improve the quotation.

Volume II: Price Quotation

Each Quoter shall submit a price quotation separate from the technical quotation (Volume I).

The price quotation shall include the following: Completion of all unit prices as stated in Attachment C – Pricing Worksheet, including any stated options.

Page Limitation. There is no page limitation on the price quotation submission.

Evaluation and Selection Process

Since this award is made under the policies of FAR part 12 in conjunction with FAR part 13 procedures, the evaluation process is streamlined, and FHFA has considerable flexibility in its award decision. FHFA will evaluate the quotation considering positive attributes, negative attributes, and potential risk of the overall quotation.

During the evaluation process, FHFA may or may not conduct exchanges. If FHFA conducts exchanges, such exchanges may be with one, several, or all Quoters. Exchanges may vary based on FHFA’s need to understand or give Quoters an opportunity to improve their quotations, but all exchanges will be fair and equitable.

Basis of Award

The Government shall evaluate each quotation against the following factors:

Factor 1: Technical Capability Factor 2: Past Performance Factor 3: Price

Factors 1 and 2 are referred to as technical factors. Factor 2 is less important than Factor 1. The technical factors (when combined) are significantly more important than Factor 3, Price.

However, where quotations are evaluated as relatively equal in technical merit, price becomes more important in making the award determination. Award may be made to other than the lowest priced quotation if the Government determines that a price premium is warranted due to technical merit. The Government may also award to other than the highest technically rated quotation, if the Government determines that a price premium is not warranted.

After the Government identifies the apparent successful quoter using the procedures specified above, the Contracting Officer may request from the apparent successful quoter a Small Business Subcontracting Plan. If the Government finds this plan unacceptable, the Government may request these plans from other quoters. This request does not constitute discussions (as that term is defined in FAR subpart 15.3).

Price

The Government will evaluate the total proposed price for reasonableness. FHFA reserves the right to conduct a price realism analysis to assess whether the proposed prices are unrealistically low. Unrealistically low prices may be considered a negative attribute to the extent that they reflect a lack of technical understanding or a risk inherent in the proposed approach.

Rating System for Factors 1 and 2

The tables below show the ratings the Government will assign in its evaluation of quotes when evaluating Factors 1 and 2. The Government will consider the quoter’s approaches and the risks associated with those approaches to arrive at a confidence assessment of the quoter’s likelihood of successfully performing the work and meeting FHFA’s objectives.

Factor 1 and 2 Confidence Ratings

High Confidence

The Government has high confidence that the quoter has the ability to perform the requirements and will be successful in performing the work.

Confident The Government is confident that the quoter has the ability to perform the requirements and will be successful in performing the work.

Some Confidence

The Government has some confidence that the quoter has the ability to perform the requirements and will be successful in performing the work.

Low Confidence

The Government has low confidence that the quoter has the ability to perform the requirements or will be successful in performing the work.

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS

Attachment A Statement of Work Attachment B FAR and FHFA Specialty Clauses and Provisions Attachment C Pricing Worksheet Attachment D FHFA Subscriber Addendum Attachment E Solicitation Question Template