Inactive Historically Underutilized Business (HUBZone) Set-Aside (FAR 19.13)

Background: The objective of this acquisition is to obtain verbatim/transcription reporting services to support the NRC in adjudicatory hearings and oral arguments, investigations, depositions and var... Background: The objective of this acquisition is to obtain verbatim/transcription reporting services to support the NRC in adjudicatory hearings and oral arguments, investigations, depositions and various NRC staff meetings. Many NRC public meetings, hearings, and depositions are held as part of the decision-making process in licensing nuclear facilities. These activities are an extremely important and closely scrutinized part of the NRC's daily operations. The nature of the services are such that delays, errors and other forms of unsatisfactory or poor performance will jeopardize the interests of the Commission and adversely impact its regulatory review process. The NRC presides over adjudicatory hearings and oral arguments before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) and meetings for the Advisory Committee for Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) and other Commission-level meetings. The subject matter discussed at these meetings is very complex, highly technical and may involve the handling of classified or sensitive unclassified information. At ACRS meetings, there are frequent changes of speakers and, on many occasions, more than one speaker talking at a time. Some NRC meetings are less technical but equally demanding, often extremely informal, and portions may be highly sensitive or of a confidential nature. Personnel security interviews conducted by the Office of Administration's (ADM) Division of Facilities and Security and investigations by the Office of Investigations and Inspector General are sensitive and must be recorded and handled with the utmost confidentiality. NRC meetings that require handling of sensitive, unclassified, or classified material are primarily held at NRC headquarters. NRC Meetings, investigations, and adjudicatory proceedings that do not require the handling of sensitive unclassified, or classified material are conducted by NRC offices and are held in various locations throughout the country. Transcripts of these meetings are produced by a contractor and are then reviewed by the NRC and published on the NRC’s website for the general public to view. Scope: The contractor shall provide court reporting services for a variety of depositions, hearings, investigations, meetings and oral arguments throughout the United States. These locations include Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, any U.S. protectorate; the countries of Canada and Mexico; and the NRC headquarters and OI regional field offices located in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois and Texas. Some of these hearings, depositions or investigations may require the handling of sensitive unclassified or classified material. It is anticipated that instances requiring the handling of sensitive unclassified or classified material, including safeguards, shall be transcribed at NRC headquarters by the contractor. It will be the responsibility of the contractor to obtain all required security clearances, cleared facility, cybersecurity approvals, and the procedures for properly handling and processing of the material. The contractor will be required to provide personnel with appropriate information security clearances to access any safeguards (SGI) or classified information at the NRC’s offices. The contractor will also be required to obtain a facility clearance in order to process any sensitive unclassified or controlled unclassified information (CUI) at the contractor’s offices. Upon obtaining a facility clearance, the contractor will be required implement a security plan and comply with the requirements established in DoD 5220.22-M “National Industrial Security Program Operation Manual (NISPOM)” at http://www.dss.mil. When meetings occur at the same time across the various locations, the contractor will be required to provide support at each location simultaneously. The contract will consist of a one year base period from June 11, 2024 through June 10, 2025 plus four (4) one-year options to extend the term of the contract. For proposal preparation purposes, the offeror should assume an award on or about May 22, 2024 and a postaward conference at the NRC in Rockville, Maryland within one week thereafter. Solicitation Availability and Proposal Submission: The NRC uses Compusearch Software Systems' secure and auditable two-way web portal, FedConnect, to communicate with offerors and contractors. FedConnect provides bi-directional communication between the offeror/contractor and the NRC throughout the preaward, award and postaward phases. Assistance with FedConnect is provided by Compusearch Software Systems, not the NRC. FedConnect contact and assistance information is provided at https://www.fedconnect.net. The solicitation and any related amendments will be released only via FedConnect; therefore, potential offerors must register at https://www.fedconnect.net to access the solicitation and amendments. The solicitation is anticipated to be posted on FedConnect on or about March 21, 2024. Offerors are encouraged to check FedConnect regularly for solicitation availability and amendments to it. In addition, questions and proposals will only be considered if they are submitted via FedConnect. The solicitation will include detailed instructions for how to prepare and submit a proposal. By submission of a proposal, the offeror acknowledges the requirement that a prospective awardee shall be registered in the System for Award Management (https://www.SAM.gov) database at www.sam.gov prior to award, during performance, and through final payment of any resultant contract. Evaluation Factors for Award: The NRC intends to award one contract to the responsible HUBZone Small Business Offeror whose proposal is deemed to represent the best value to the Government, price and other factors considered. Evaluation factors are anticipated to include past performance information, technical approach, management/staffing plan and price. Details will be included in the solicitation. All responsible HUBZone small businesses may submit a proposal, which the NRC will consider. Submission of Questions: Email all questions to mark.lohrmann@nrc.gov no later than March 28, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Questions received after the deadline may not be addressed. The NRC will issue one or more amendments, as appropriate, via FedConnect to address any questions received and to make appropriate changes to the solicitation.