SEBAC sent a letter to the Contracting Officer of the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation, Acquisition Management Branch, requesting that they change the NAICS code for this procurement to classify as a small business by the employee count of 1,000 employee-based size standard of NAICS Code 562910.

Outcome: Our letter was acknowledged by Cathy Boulware but no response yet.

SEBAC sent a letter to the Contracting Officer at USEPA requesting that they change the NAICS code for this procurement to classify as a small business by the employee count of 1,000 employee-based size standard of NAICS Code 562910.

Outcome: USEPA elected not to change the NAICS code for this procurement.

Item SEBAC sent a letter requesting that the Seattle District change the NAICS code for this procurement to classify as a small business by the employee count of 1,000 employee-based size standard of NAICS Code 562910 as opposed to using the $25M size standard under NAICS Code 562910 for this procurement.

Outcome: Success! The Seattle District changed the NAICS code.

SEBAC sent a letter requesting that the KC District reconsider the use of two projects and instead allow three to five projects to meet the minimum threshold, noting that by setting the dollar limits at the current requirements, it reduces the possibility of qualified companies submitting a proposal. Also asked them to allow additional projects performed outside of NY and NJ to be considered and requested that the KC District re-evaluate the dates of project experience and revise the eligibility criteria of the Company's recent project experience.

Outcome: USACE Kansas City sent a letter on 03April2025 stating: “Thank you for recognizing in your letter that we established these criteria to best align contractor capability with our remedial project objectives. We have given further consideration to the number of projects we are requesting, the dollar values for those projects, the contract types, project locations, and our method for determining the recency of project performance and have decided not to make any changes. The evaluation criteria were created in collaboration with several experienced individuals that support the Kansas City District’s HTRW program and incorporated feedback received from industry. We are confident that these criteria are necessary to meet the government’s needs and ensure successful contract performance”

With regard to the Notice ID W912PL25S0009 Remedial Action Contract (RAC), SEBAC sent a letter asking the LA District to amend the NAICS code to be 562910 as opposed to 237990 for this procurement.

Outcome: Letter was acknowledged as received by Roger Minami and he has followed up several times during this year noting that he will provide us an answer when he receives an answer from USEPA.

With regard to this solicitation, according to Section D, Proposal Requirements, Factor 2 Past Performance Evaluation, interested offerors shall submit only projects wherein the offeror or proposed JV were the prime contractors and played a significant role in the successful completion of the project. As the seed project specifically mentions experience in one remedial technology, which is typically only applied in specific situations, and for a project(s) at a large value, the requirements are abnormally restrictive to competition amongst interested and capable small businesses and, more importantly, prevent the possibility of using potential small business subcontractor experience that are part of an acknowledged and authorized teaming agreement. SEBAC sent a letter asking that USACE Savannah District amend the restrictive conditions provided as part of the solicitation so that multiple small businesses that would meet acceptable source selection criteria and are interested in this procurement will be allowed to provide a reasonable best value proposal to the Government in accordance with FAR 15.101-1 and FAR 52.215-1.

Outcome: Letter acknowledged as received by David Jimenez, Contract Specialist, and there were discussions between he and SEBAC President David Nelson. Letter response received from the Savannah District noted that they are reviewing SEBAC’s letter, the Source Selection Plan, and the Request for Proposal to ensure that the USACE, Savannah District, is providing quality solicitations that do not unduly restrict competition amongst small businesses, but did not provide any changes to the solicitation requirements at that time.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) published a Pre-Solicitation Notice for the National Multiple Award Environmental Sampling and Remediation Services IDIQ Contract listing the NAICS code for this procurement as 562910 with a small business size standard of $25M. SEBAC sent a letter noting that we recognize that the application of the 562910 NAICS code is in this case inappropriate, as this proposed pre-solicitation is for environmental remediation services, and requested that BIA change the NAICS code for 562910 to classify as a small business by the employee count at 1,000.

Outcome: The Contracting Officer replied: “Thank you for this information and it will be reviewed by our legal team prior to release of the actual solicitation.”

USACE published this solicitation under NAICS 562910 with a small business size standard of $25,000,000. SEBAC letter was sent requesting that since the project is clearly for environmental remediation services, the size standard should be classified as small using the employee limit exception instituted at 1,000 as published by the US Small Business Administration in the Table of Small Business Size Standards, noting that as the solicitation has been advertised as a small business set-aside, they should change the NAICS code for 562910 to classify as a small business by the employee count at 1,000 and increase the competition level. Additionally, and for further consideration, we pointed out that the overarching contract for the task order, the Louisville ERSC, was solicited under 562910 with the employee size limit of 1,000 employees.

Outcome: Success! USACE issued Amendment 0003 to the Solicitation updating the NAICS small business size standard to equal the small business size standard of 1,000 employees.

 USEPA RAF contracting under Region 5 solicited small businesses under an RFI for this site. Several SEBAC member companies responded to this RFI with clear evidence that the task order should be competed among only the small businesses holding the RES contract in CLIN 0002. When the solicitation was announced, EPA released it as an Unrestricted solicitation which included large business contract holders along with small businesses. SEBAC letter was sent asking EPA to explain how, with the number of small businesses submitting qualifications that match the requirements, EPA still determined that the solicitation should be open to large businesses. 

Outcome: Success! EPA Region 5 responded stating that after going back and reviewing the responses to the RFI, this task order will now be set aside for small businesses and Amendment 0001 was issued to that effect. 

 SEBAC letter was sent requesting that the Omaha District reduce the threshold on the following requirement in the Sources Sought: under ‘Types of Contracts’, item (6) requests that responders “demonstrate capability and capacity to perform services on at least (5) different, large (>$25M) task order awards concurrently”. Our letter noted that this is an extremely high requirement threshold, and one that even large businesses would have difficulty meeting, adding that a more equitable approach would be to modify this requirement to more accurately reflect industry experience and provide an avenue for small business participation. 

Outcome: USACE responded on 16July2024 stating: “Thank you for the letter and for the informative response related to Small Business impacts. Much discussion has occurred related to the requirement posted in the Sources Sought. The information included was provided to us by the customer and PM who do expect several large dollar projects simultaneously. We understand the Small Business community within this field is very capable of performing work that may be considered under a future IDIQ resulting from this Market Research, and we will work with our Government Small Business teammates to ensure the requirements within any resulting RFP aren’t overly restrictive and are in line with future requirements expected.”