Friends Interpreting Services LLC

Friends Interpreting Services LLC, an SBA-certified Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) and Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) headquartered in Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia, provides American Sign Language interpretation, translation, and Communication Access Real-Time Translation (CART) services to federal agencies exclusively as a prime contractor. The firm operates under NAICS 611910 (Translation and Interpretation Services) and does not subcontract; it self-performs all delivery. As an 8(a) Program Participant, Friends Interpreting Services competes under both set-aside and full-and-open designations, though the majority of recent awards carry no set-aside restriction.

Customer concentration is severe and creates strategic dependency. The Social Security Administration dominates the portfolio, accounting for 69 of 130 awards (53% of total awards) and $35.3 million of $65.4 million in combined potential value (54% of portfolio dollars). The next-largest customer by dollar value, the Department of Labor's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management, contributes only $14.1 million across two awards. The top five customers (SSA, DOL, DOJ Criminal Division, Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and GSA) represent 80% of combined potential value but show volume concentration driven almost entirely by SSA's 69 task orders. This creates marked recompete risk: six awards valued at $2.6 million complete within the next twenty-four months, but SSA's large portfolio faces ongoing task-order renewal pressure across multiple delivery vehicles.

Friends Interpreting Services operates primarily through two parent vehicles. The Indefinite Delivery Contract 28321317D00060011, held with SSA, anchors 67 task orders ($15.9 million combined potential value); this vehicle is the vendor's dominant channel. The GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) carries 44 task orders ($28.9 million combined potential value), through which the vendor places delivery orders with the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management ($8.96 million ceiling, sign language interpretation services, ultimate completion June 2031), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ($749 thousand, CART/ACL interpreting, May 2031), the Department of Transportation ($5.47 million, DOT-wide interpreting and captioning for all operating administrations, September 2028), the Department of Justice Criminal Division ($1.69 million, sign language interpretation and CART, August 2026), the Department of Commerce ($5.15 million for sign language interpreting services, June 2026), and the U.S. Census Bureau ($382 thousand for interpretation services, April 2027). The vendor also holds single-award BPAs with the Naval Sea Systems Command ($249 thousand, June 2030) and the Naval Supply Systems Command ($250 thousand set-aside for women-owned small business, August 2028), and a multiple-award BPA with FEMA for virtual ASL interpreters and CART services in Region 2 (New York, New Jersey, U.S. Virgin Islands).

Activity has declined sharply. The vendor recorded 13 awards in 2022, 8 in 2023, 3 in 2024, 2 in 2025, and 2 in 2026 year-to-date. This contraction reflects the SSA-dependent portfolio: as SSA's demands modulate, the vendor's pipeline contracts correspondingly. Recent representative work includes the HHS delivery order for sign language interpretation (awarded June 2026, $8.96 million ceiling through June 2031) and the DOL Assistant Secretary order for sign language interpreting services (awarded November 2021, $5.15 million ceiling through June 2026), both labor-hours contracts on the MAS vehicle.

SCI-reported invoicing for federal service contracts above the $150,000 threshold shows FY2022 at $3.7 million across 19.7 FTEs, FY2023 at $1.5 million across 9.4 FTEs, and FY2024 at $3.3 million across 20.3 FTEs. These figures exclude all non-federal revenue and represent only the subset of the vendor's contracts meeting the SCI reporting threshold; they do not capture total enterprise revenue or total federal revenue. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, the vendor self-performs all hours with zero subcontractor engagement. Government-paid hourly rates run a median of $79.43 per hour, with rates spanning from $68.68 per hour at the 10th percentile to $103.64 per hour at the 90th percentile, reflecting the labor-intensity and specialized skill mix of sign language interpretation.

Friends Interpreting Services (FIS), a Deaf-owned, and Woman-owned company, providing the highest quality in sign language interpreting services nationwide. Friends Interpreting Services are proud to provide American Sign Language Interpreters for any setting: hospitals, schools, doctor's offices, community gatherings, media events and more. FIS has been providing services to government and private sector clients for many years and has gained a reputation for quality. At FIS we are committed to providing superior and barrier-free communication solutions for our Hearing, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf clients. We believe in listening to our clients in order to provide effective and efficient communication solutions for each individual to ensure that barrier free communication takes place.