DHS Procurement Chief Soraya Correa says there are existing and new regulatory and legal authorities the department can wield to help its contractors as DHS and industry cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Correa points to existing “regulatory authorities” in the Federal Acquisition Regulation that allow contracts to be modified due to certain impacts such as the COVID-19 virus, in which case a “contractor may be entitled to an equitable adjustment to contract price using standard” clauses in the regulations. The recently passed $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package called the CARES Act also allows the government to help its vendors maintain their workforces. Under the legislation, agencies can modify contracts “to reimburse at the minimum applicable contract billing rates not to exceed an average of 40 hours per week any paid leave, including sick leave, a contractor provides to keep its employees or subcontractors in a ready state” through Sept. 30, she says. This benefit only applies to contractors whose employees and subcontractors can’t work at a federally-approved site because it has been shut down or restricted and they cannot telework.
The Transportation Security Administration
has awarded incumbent contractor Deloitte Consulting a six-month extension to continue providing strategic support services. The existing contract, including all options, is $43.4 million.
Customs and Border Protection plans to award a sole source contract to Johns Hopkins Univ. Applied Physics Laboratory for Minotaur Rapid Reaction and Prototyping Engineering Support. The Minotaur Mission Processor software provides integrated capabilities for building, disseminating, and exploiting real-time tactical all-source overland and maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information through an enterprise. The MMS integrates airborne sensors and distributes data to CBP’s Air and Marine Operations Center and the Joint Interagency Task Force-South. MMS is operational on the MQ-9 Predator and Guardian unmanned aircraft systems, the P-3 long-range tracker, DHC-8, B-200 Mongoose, and Beechcraft 350ER multi-role enforcement aircraft.
The Transportation Security Administration is extending by 180 days the expiration dates for Transportation Worker Identification Credentials that expire between March 1 and July 31. The agency says there are 2,294,797 active TWIC cards currently in circulation with 234,536, about 10 percent, set to expire in the next six months. It says social distancing practices in response to COVID-19 make gathering at enrollment center unwise or prohibited, adding that about one-third of the agency’s enrollment centers are currently closed.
President Donald Trump has nominated Elizabeth Spivey to be Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Legislative Affairs. Spivey is a founding partner of B+S Strategies, a public policy firm specializing in government relations, legislative and strategic advice, and formerly was director of outreach and coalitions for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and from 2007 until 2013 was vice president of Government Affairs at OSI Systems’ [OSIS] Rapiscan Systems division. She also spent 10 years as a senior policy advisor to former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) for transportation, homeland security, telecommunications, energy and environment.