Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition - OHS HFARD NBIC Advisory & Assistance Services

What the buyer wrote

This requirement is to procure Advisory and Assistance Services for the DHS Office of Health Security (OHS) Health, Food, and Agriculture Resilience Directorate (HFARD), National Biosurveillance Information Center (NBIC). OHS has an immediate need for 

administrative, programmatic, systems engineering, research analysis, and scientific support services. These 

commercial services will be procured on a firm fixed priced basis under General Services Administration (GSA) OASIS+, Unrestricted, Management & Advisory Domain, Contract-Category 60107 (NAICS 541690 - Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services).

The National Biosurveillance Information Center (NBIC) is established by 6 U.S. Code § 195b(d)(2) under the Department of Homeland Security. NBIC is primarily supported via contractor support personnel via an Advisory and Assistance (A&AS) task order and will be unable to execute their statutory mission to detect biological events of national concern early without these services. Therefore, the selected authority for this procurement is RFO FAR 16.507-6(b)(1): The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays.

This Justification notice includes J&A FY26-037 and Addendum 1 to correct the estimated total value and to correct the statuory authority to RFO FAR 16.507-6(b)(1) "The agency need for the suppliers or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptabl delays" and not RFO Subpart 6.103-2 "Unsual and compelling urgency".