Request for Information: Training Support Services for the Center for Domestic Preparedness

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), on behalf of the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), has developed this Request for Information (RFI) to solicit market research information from industry. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. It is not a Request for Proposal, a Request for Quotation, an Invitation for Bids, a Solicitation, or an indication the CDP will contract for the items contained in the RFI. This RFI is part of a Government market research effort to determine the scope of industry capabilities and interest and will be treated as information only. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responses to this RFI are strictly voluntary and the Government will not pay respondents for information provided in response to this RFI. Responses to this RFI will not be returned and respondents will not be notified of the result of the review. If a Solicitation is issued, it will be announced on the Federal Business Opportunities, website www.fbo.gov, at a later date, and all interested parties must respond to that Solicitation announcement separately from any response to this announcement. This RFI does not restrict the Government's acquisition approach on a future Solicitation. NO PROPOSALS ARE BEING REQUESTED OR ACCEPTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS SYNOPSIS AND NO CONTRACT SHALL BE AWARDED AS A RESULT OF THIS RFI. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this RFI or any follow up information requests. This is a Total 8(a) Small Business Set Aside. The NAICS code is 611710- Educational Support Services. The Small Business Size Standard for this NAICS is $15.0 million. The purpose of this RFI is to receive industry comments on the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) including (but not limited to) technical questions and comments, contract pricing considerations, contract type, and potential award fee incentives for the competitively contracted services for Training Support Services for The Center for Domestic Preparedness, in Anniston, Alabama. The CDP is a national training facility located in Anniston, Alabama that prepares state and local emergency response personnel to respond to all hazards, including terrorist attacks using weapons of mass destruction, by providing advanced, hands on training. This national training program was developed for state, local, tribal, Federal, private sector and international responders from Fire Service, Law Enforcement, Emergency Medical Services, Emergency Management, HazMat, Public Health, Healthcare, Public Communications, Public Works and Government Administrative and other emergency response personnel, their trainers and supervisors. Training courses provided by the CDP provide specific knowledge and expertise for deterrence, prevention and response to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) incidents; mass casualty incidents; and incidents involving hazardous materials by providing advanced, hands-on and classroom-based state of the art training. Training Support Services as described in the attached draft PWS includes but is not limited to: administrative registration support, travel arrangements (air and ground), scheduling of transportation, classroom setup and training support materials, outreach program, role player support, archival of historical records, planning for support, scheduling of transportation, coordination with other CDP functional areas and contractors, record maintenance, record analysis, obtaining administrative supplies, and quality control. Training Support Services include travel and admissions support. Admissions include registration of students and serves as the initial data collection point for all training statistics and student records generation. Admissions is logically linked to travel (air and ground) and lodging requirements. The Government desires that respondents offer their experience and recommendations on the following questions and issues related to the CDP requirements. The Government recommends that you first review the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) so that you may have a better insight on the questions below. (1) Is the Performance Work Statement (PWS) clear, concise, and/or sufficient enough to develop and submit the required information in response to a Request For Proposal (RFP)? (2) The Government anticipates a competitive 8(a) set-aside for this requirement based on previous history. What is the business size standard of your company (small business, SDB, SDVOSB, HUBZone, 8(a), Large, etc)? If 8(a) eligible, please provide current status regarding your scheduled graduation date from the 8(a) program under this NAICS code. (3) Is 45 days a sufficient amount of time for a contractor to prepare a proposal given the scenario of a full trade-off best value source selection requiring a technical and price proposal and past performance references? This time period also allows for a site visit approximately 2 weeks after positing the solicitation. If 45 days is not sufficient, please provide a reasonable timeframe to prepare a proposal. (4) Respondents to this RFI should describe their interest and ability to perform the requirements summarized within this notice. (5) Discuss any concerns, comments or recommendations you may have with the attached draft Performance Work Statement. No inquiries will be answered at this time and respondents shall not be notified of the results of the market research. Again, this document is merely for market research and planning purposes only and does not constitute a commitment, implied, or otherwise, that a procurement action will be issued nor will the Government pay or reimburse for information solicited or produced and may not be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract. In the event a solicitation is developed, it will be assigned a formal RFP number and the announcement will be published on www.fbo.gov. Vendor comments may be incorporated and used to develop the final PWS as well as the solicitation. Responders to this RFI will not automatically be notified of any potential solicitation; therefore interested parties should be vigilant in looking for and must respond to the official solicitation announcement when it is posted on www.fbo.gov. Submissions must be submitted electronically as a Microsoft Word or an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF); no other document format or type will be accepted. It is important to note that there is a system wide size limitation on e-mail attachments of 10MB per e-mail message. It is highly recommended that respondents check the total size of the response before sending and if necessary submit responses on sequential e-mails. All responses to the RFI shall be submitted by email to Laura Harshbarger, Contract Specialist, DHS/FEMA, Emmitsburg, MD. E-mail address: laura.harshbarger@fema.dhs.gov no later than February 9, 2018, 4:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. No phone calls accepted.