AMENDMENT 2 - Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Claims Arbitration Services

The Federal Emergency Management Agency seeks proposals for a single-award IDIQ advisory and assistance support contract to provide qualified arbitrators for its Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Claims Office, with proposals due November 10, 2026 at 3:00 PM ET under Amendment 2. No set-aside is used. Amendment 2 supersedes the October 29 proposal date, and the question period closed October 22.

Place of performance is Santa Fe, New Mexico. Hearings are primarily virtual, with up to 5% of cases conducted in person in New Mexico. Arbitrators must hold active bar membership in good standing, have at least 10 years of legal experience in specified areas (agriculture, complex civil litigation, insurance claims, commercial litigation, business transactions, forestry, land use, water rights, or property valuation), and have at least five years of arbitration or judicial experience. The contractor must maintain a minimum roster of six arbitrators, expandable to 20 within 60 days of COR notice, and submit resumes for all 20 proposed arbitrators at proposal time. Personnel require background investigations and training in OPSEC, insider threat, privacy, and controlled unclassified information handling. Hearings must be scheduled within 90 days of case assignment, and final written decisions are due within 10 calendar days of hearing conclusion.

The period of performance is a 12-month base period (November 19, 2026 to November 18, 2027) plus two 12-month options, with up to 1,700 hearings distributed 55%, 35%, and 10% across those periods. The contract is hybrid FFP/T&M/LH. The pricing template totals $348,890 across all periods, including $318,890 for travel and miscellaneous costs on a T&M basis. The template estimates 90% of cases as low complexity (6–12 hours), 2% as moderate (12–18 hours), and 8% as high (18–24 hours).

Evaluation uses best-value tradeoff in the order Corporate Experience, Key Personnel, Management Plan, Past Performance, and Price. Non-price factors are collectively more important than price, and an offeror rated "Low Confidence" on any non-price factor is ineligible for award. Corporate Experience requires a minimum $1 million in actual incurred costs on arbitration contracts within the past five years. Page limits are six for Corporate Experience, 42 for Key Personnel, 15 for the Management Plan (five of which cover the Quality Control Plan), and six for Past Performance. Technical and price volumes are submitted as separate PDF and Excel files, each not exceeding 10 MB, by email to Lisa.Thibodeaux@fema.dhs.gov.