Notice of Intent to Sole Source - Bureau of National Affairs

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Acquisition Solutions, Cincinnati Acquisition Division intends to negotiate on a sole-source basis with the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. for a subscription to Bloomberg Industry Group's resource: Environment and Energy Report. This procurement is being conducted under the authority of FAR 12.203 and FAR 13.106-1(b)(2), soliciting from a single source.

NAICS Code 519130

The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) provides access to comprehensive coverage of environmental and regulatory information that is critical to the research and regulatory work done at the EPA. Specifically, the BNA provides an online resource subscription to the Bloomberg Industry Group's Environment and Energy Report, which publishes news headlines and short summaries on key environmental issues as the news occurs in real-time throughout the day. The site also emails subscribers the day's most important news at day's end. In addition, this report provides current, thorough coverage of clean energy, efficiency, and climate change legislation, regulation, policy, legal developments, and trends in the U.S. and internationally via continuous website updates. Access is provided to designated Agency staff and on-site contractors via IP address recognition. Selecting a publisher or distributor other than BNA would not be possible as BNA is the sole provider of the Bloomberg Environment and Energy Report. BNA is the publisher and the only source that can deliver the required information. At this time, BNA has not released the rights for the electronic submission of its resources to any other publisher or distributor.

The EPA is procuring the following under this requirement:

- Subscription to Bloomberg's Energy and Environment Report which includes:

o Access to unique content and analysis that provides intensive coverage of legal and regulatory developments that are essential reading for EPA researchers and policy writers, including:

- The "Practitioner Insights" column where lawyers and other experts in the field give their insights and analysis on current environmental legislation.

- Exclusive videos and podcasts.

o Access to a staff of more than 600 reporters, lawyers and editors based in the nation's capital, plus correspondents across the country and around the world.

- IP address recognition to all licensed publications for all EPA employees and onsite contractors.

- Additional remote access username and passwords offered for 550 users.

- The ability for users to search, browse, view and print all licensed content.

- Instant access to the latest subscribed content on the Bloomberg website.

- Daily news service on environmental topics.

- Voluntary Email Alerts to notify users when new issues have been posted on the site.

- Timely response to and work to resolve all troubleshooting requests as they pertain to access issues, invoicing, pricing, etc.

- Base period plus four option periods.

THIS NOTICE OF INTENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETATIVE QUOTATIONS. This notice satisfies the requirement at FAR 5.101(a)(1) for publicizing the proposed contract action. It is the Government's intent to award a single, firm fixed price contract. Sources wishing to be considered MUST submit documentation to the office identified in this notice. Supporting evidence must be furnished in sufficient detail to demonstrate compliance. Information MUST be sent electronically to werwick.brad@epa.gov. Telephone responses will not be honored. Responses must be received by 11:59pm Eastern Time on January 23, 2020. A determination by the Government not to compete this acquisition based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.