Inactive

AMENDMENT 001 Sources Sought Notice ID CAW-2023-1007 is hereby amended. Changes to the notice are identified below in bold text. The due date for submissions is hereby extended to October 19, 2022 at ... AMENDMENT 001 Sources Sought Notice ID CAW-2023-1007 is hereby amended. Changes to the notice are identified below in bold text. The due date for submissions is hereby extended to October 19, 2022 at 3:30 PM Eastern Time. END OF AMENDMENT TEXT This is a sources sought notice for market research purposes. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS OR A REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2021, Section 9902, directed the Secretary of the Department of Commerce to establish a program to provide federal financial assistance to incentivize investment in facilities and equipment in the United States for semiconductor fabrication, assembly, testing, advanced packaging, or research and development. Passage of the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act of 2022 authorized funding that will be allocated over five years to encourage semiconductor manufacturers to finance U.S.-based fabrication equipment and facilities. In addition, it allocates funding to the Department of Commerce for a set of new programs. The CHIPS for America Fund, will be administered by the Department of Commerce (the “Department”). The Department is developing CHIPS program design and implementation plans. Under the CHIPS Act, the Department is responsible for designing, implementing, and overseeing a program of roughly $40 billion of financial incentives targeted at expanding U.S. domestic semiconductor production. Authorized financial incentives include grants, loans, and loan guarantees. A top priority for the Department at this stage is to create a roadmap for the various program development tasks for the CHIPS program, particularly for loans and/or loan guarantees. This roadmap will take the form of a program development plan. The Department must complete various program development tasks for the CHIPS program prior to the implementation of credit review, monitoring, and compliance activities required of Federal Credit programs under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-129, Policies for Federal Credit Programs and Non-Tax Receivables. The purpose of the A-129 program development plan will be to provide an overview of all necessary workstreams, timelines, and guidance to complete these various program development tasks for the CHIPS program. The Department must develop robust structures, policies, and procedures that will help ensure that the CHIPS program is effective in meeting programmatic objectives while providing adequate protection to the taxpayer. The Government requires the expertise of a Contractor for the purpose of establishing policies, procedures and modeling needed to establish a loan guarantee program in support of and as a part of the incentives portion of the NDAA. Further, the structures, policies, and procedures must conform to statutory and regulatory requirements, industry best practices for managing risk, and guidance from applicable OMB Circulars and other oversight guidelines. The Government requires the expertise of a Contractor in developing a detailed A-129 program development plan with timelines for the elements recommended by OMB Circular A-129. The deliverable will be a detailed A-129 program development plan with timelines for the elements recommended by the Circular. The plan must consider the direction and requirements of the Office of Management and Budget and the Department. Based upon its experience with Federal Credit Programs, the Contractor shall identify details on each step required, the level of effort and detail needed for each task to reach completion, and relevant examples and best practices for those tasks in the program development plan. The Contractor will also be required to work with Government personnel in reviewing loan applications consistent with the program development plan and other CHIPS Act requirements. Contracts handling Government information must meet the requisite IT security and privacy controls to be compliant with security and privacy requirements defined by applicable federal laws, regulations, policies, and standards (e.g., the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, and Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 200), and requirements in accordance with the NIST SOW. The Contractor will be provided NIST-owned computers and shall utilize existing NIST systems that are compliant with federal laws, regulations, policies and standards referenced above. Contractor personnel must be U.S. citizens and/or green card holders and must undergo all processes necessary to be vetted as a NIST Associate. Only personnel approved by NIST as “NIST Associates” will be permitted to perform work under this project. REFERENCES National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, Section 9902 https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hr6395/BILLS-116hr6395enr.pdf Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act of 2022 https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/592E23A5-B56F-48AE-B4C1-493822686BCB Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-11, Preparation, Submission and Execution of the Budget https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/a11.pdf Office of Management and Budget Circular A-129, Policies Federal Credit Programs and Non-Tax Receivables, Appendix A, Program Reviews https://fiscal.treasury.gov/files/dms/circ-a129-upd-0113.pdf Office of Management and Budget Circular A-130, Managing Information as a Strategic Resource https://www.cio.gov/policies-and-priorities/circular-a-130/ Required Information for Submission NIST is seeking responses from responsible sources. Responses are being sought from all business sizes. Small businesses are strongly encouraged to respond. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 541611 Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services, as those domestic sources having annual revenues of $21.5M or less. After the results of this market research are obtained and analyzed, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract. If at least two qualified small business are identified during market research, then a competitive procurement would be conducted via a small business set-aside. If a small business set-aside results, a Limitation Subcontracting clause will be applicable to the anticipated procurement action. Businesses meeting the classification of the set-aside cannot pay more than 50% of the amount paid to it, by the Government, to firms that are not similarly situated. Responses to this sources sought shall not exceed ten pages in length and shall demonstrate the respondent’s capabilities as indicated below. The response must provide detail well beyond a standard capability statement. Documentation submitted shall include all of the following: -Organization name, Unique Entity Identifier for the Company’s active SAM.Gov Registration; Website; Contact Name, Telephone Number, and E-mail address; -A discussion of the Contractor’s knowledge of and experience with all of the following: (i) OMB Circular A129 and the Federal Credit Reform Act; (ii) Program Review as articulated in A129; (iii) Federal credit program development, financial and risk modeling, underwriting, origination, administration & servicing, and annual credit reestimates, including all requirements necessary to comply with the Federal Budgeting Process as outlined in OMB A-11; (iv) Evaluating project financing structures that include federal credit programs as part of the project proposal; (v) Project descriptions that demonstrate the Contractor’s experience working with Federal and public sector institutions on relevant assignments. -Price Information It is requested that potential labor categories, labor rates, and other direct costs that might be used to accomplish the work be provided. All price information will be utilized for budgeting purposes. Therefore, it is preferred that labor rates be within 10-15% of the actual price. This estimate is non-committal and will be held by NIST as confidential. The above information and any other information considered pertinent to this notification must be submitted to Carol A. Wood, Contracting Officer, not later October 19th, 2022, at 3:30 PM Eastern Time. Email submission is required.