Build America Bureau Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) Corporate Work

This action posts Amendment 1 which is a Question and Answer document. No updates to any solicitation documents have been made as a result of Amendment 1. See RFQ 693JJ323Q000026 and attachments for additional details. This is an Open Market Time and Materials RFQ. The Government intends to award one contract as a result of this solicitation. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial products or commercial services. This solicitation is prepared in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 12, the acquisition of commercial items in conjunction with the policies and procedures for solicitation, evaluation, and award as prescribed in FAR 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2023-02. This solicitation is unrestricted and the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 541110 - Offices of Lawyers with an industry size standard of $15.5 million. A responsible Quoter is one whose submission conforms to the solicitation and will be most advantageous to the Government. It is the contractor's responsibility to be familiar with applicable clauses and provisions. FAR Provisions and Clauses may be viewed and/or downloaded from http://www.acquisition.gov/far. FHWA will conduct this procurement under FAR 13.5 and will select the Quoter that is best suited and provides the best value to the Government based on a comparative evaluation (comparing Quoters to each other) considering the evaluation factors below: Factor 1: Corporate Finance and Rail Financing Experience and Hosting Capability Factor 2: Staffing and Key Personnel Factor 3: Restructurings Experience Factor 4: Subcontracting Plan Factor 5: Price Factor 1 (Phase 1) will be evaluated and after the Government has completed Phase 1 evaluations, all Quoters will receive an advisory notification via email. Quoters who rate most highly for Phase 1 will be advised to proceed to Phase 2. Quoters who were not among the most highly rated will be advised not to proceed to Phase 2. Quoters are advised that their Factor 1 evaluation results will carry forward to Phase 2 and will be considered in the best value award decision. The intent of this advice is to minimize submission development costs for those Quoters with little chance of receiving award. This Phase 2 notification will be a recommendation only and discontinuing the pursuit of the requirement following the notification is voluntary. The Government does not intend to provide feedback after the completion of the Phase 1 notification. Failure to participate in Phase 2 precludes further consideration of a Quoter. Phase 2 Quoter submissions will not be accepted from Quoters who have not submitted Phase 1 requirements by the due date and time provided in this solicitation. To establish which submission represents the best value to the Government, a best value analysis of the evaluation results of the Factor 1 (Phase 1), Factor 2 (Phase 2), and Factor 3 (Phase 2) non-price factors and price will be conducted. Factors 1, 2, and 3 are listed in descending order of importance and when combined Factors 1, 2, and 3 are significantly more important than price. As discussed below, Factor 4 will be evaluated pass/fail and will only be evaluated with the Best Suited Quoter. Quoters should note that there are separate due dates for different Phases under this solicitation. Additional information on submission evaluation, down-select, and evaluation factors can be found below. The Build America Bureau (the Bureau), an office within the Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of the Under Secretary for Policy, administers the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) credit program and the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) credit program (RRIF Credit Program). TIFIA and RRIF (together, the Credit Programs) provide (secured) direct loans, loan guarantees, and standby lines of credit to borrowers seeking to develop major surface transportation projects, railroad projects, port projects and transit- oriented development projects. For RRIF, up to $35 billion has been authorized for RRIF credit assistance. To date, the RRIF Credit Program has provided $7.1 billion in credit assistance to help build 41 rail projects around the country. Further information about the Credit Programs can be found at https://www.transportation.gov/buildamerica. The Contractor must provide legal advisory professional support services, as needed, in a variety of transportation infrastructure finance topics to support the Bureau's activities relating to (1) the Bureau's RRIF Express program and RRIF corporate financing transactions, related portfolio management actions and general legal advice (on ad hoc basis). (2) completion and enhancement of the loan agreement template for RRIF corporate loans and templates for ancillary documents tailored to reflect the risks and requirements inherent with corporate lending of this nature (together, - RRIF Corporate Work). Potential activities include, but are not limited to, legal research, due diligence, negotiating and documenting individual RRIF corporate financing transactions, advising on collateral packages, the issuance of legal opinions on matters affecting the RRIF Credit Program, and general legal advice (ad hoc basis). This work may pertain to a specific RRIF project transaction, portfolio management actions (including bankruptcy, restructuring and reorganization) or non-project matters (e.g., template revisions, training of Bureau staff).