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ACQUISITION ALERT


 
Save the date, October 15th, for the 14th Annual Government Opportunities Business Conference (GOBC)! Join WPI, Volk Field Air National Guard Base, Fort McCoy, Juneau County Economic Development and partners for a day of informative sessions.
  • In-person at Volk Field in Camp Douglas, Wisconsin.
  • Our traditional Day 2 program with government agency and prime contractor representatives.
  • Watch for further details and registration information.

   
UPCOMING EVENTS
7/28/20
Acquisition Hour: The Spend to the End
Webinar
 

8/14/20
Acquisition Hour: Introduction to CMMC Level 1
Webinar
Learn More
7/30/20
Locating Opportunities with Federal, State and Local Governments
Webinar

8/25/20
Acquisition Hour: State and Federal Certifications for Veteran and Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses
Webinar
Learn More

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
SUBJECT: Buying for America

Through smart buying for America, we will deliver the services our citizens need more rapidly while strengthening our nation's economic recovery from the effects of the pandemic. The Federal Government is the largest and single-most impactful buyer in the world. In Fiscal Year 2019, federal buying offices across the Nation spent more than a half trillion dollars for products and services - almost half of our discretionary budget. The government transacted with nearly 130,000 entities, two-thirds of which are small businesses, for a wide range of needs, from defense and construction to information technology (IT), health care, professional services and transportation and logistics. More than 90 percent of the products purchased were U.S.-made.




07/13/2020 10:22 AM EDT
 
Original release date: July 13, 2020

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released an article on their Protecting Small Business playlist,which is a collection of videos with tips for small businesses to protect their networks from common cyber scams and cyberattacks.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) encourages small businesses to review the FTC article  , CISA Cyber Essentials page, and CISA Resources for Business page for more information on protecting against cyberattacks.



Black Boxes 
 
Black boxes - specifically prohibited telecommunication devices and video surveillance equipment and services will shortly be a major factor in your ability to be awarded federal contracts. On August 13 new requirements from the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Active (NDAA) will go into effect. There is a waiver process but prior to requesting a waiver the company has to know what technology they are using and if any of the devices are prohibited. To be compliant with these new requirements company must review and understand the regulations, they must make a good faith attempt to identify and prohibited equipment, companies must also provide education to key areas of their organization such as purchasing/procurement and materials management. Additional requirements include Cost of Removal, Representations to the Government and as needed both a phase-out plan along with waiver requests.  
 
GSA's Office of Small Business Utilization is hosting a webinar on Section 889 on July 30, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.  
 
 


 
DoD Covid-19 Joint Acquisition Task Force introduces FedMall as resource for PPE

On Tuesday, July 14 and Wednesday, July 15, the Department of Defense's COVID-19 Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF) and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), in coordination with interagency partners, hosted a virtual information day regarding current and future demand for personal protective equipment (PPE). 

The goals of the online sessions were to provide current and potential suppliers of PPE an understanding of PPE requirements from across multiple sectors of the economy, including the U.S. government and trade associations representing medical and non-medical industry. A dialogue was also facilitated between industry and the government regarding how current investments in domestic production may be supported by government and industry's long-term planning for consumption of domestically produced PPE.

The webinar was aimed at current and potential domestic producers of PPE (end-items as well as sub-tier suppliers of material) and consumers of PPE, namely major industry trade associations and hospital and medical network representatives.

A highlight of the program was the overview of FedMall, https://www.dla.mil/Info/FedMall/.  FedMall provides commercial-like, e-Commerce purchasing for not only Department of Defense agencies, but can also be accessed by other federal state and local governments, and even DoD contractors under Contractor Logistics Support Agreements.

FedMall offers a staggering 63 million items for purchase, including National Stock Number (NSN) items, commercial contract and "Marketplace" commercial items. FedMall "Marketplace" supports market-driven competition with dynamic pricing, ability for vendors to upload catalogs and allowance for GPC card purchases under the micro-purchase threshold.   While US Military customers account for 70% of FedMall sales, the system supports 37 thousand active customers, with orders valued at $312 million placed in fiscal year 2019.   In a great example of government and business partnership, the FedMall Program includes a development team of around 55 government contractors.

Small business government contractors also have the opportunity to purchase non-medical Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) so that they can continue supporting government missions. New suppliers have been identified so as not to disrupt the existing DLA supply chain for non-medical PPE. Items are hosted in "Marketplace" and order subject to the micro-purchase threshold are placed via government purchase card or corporate credit card. Currently, the site is hosting 12 suppliers with 234 items available for purchase. Offerings include cloth face masks, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, protective gowns, gloves, face shields, thermometers, signage and other social distancing aids for the workplace.
 

PR CANCELLATIONS FOR SELECTED CLASS IX REQUIREMENTS

DLA has started a cancellation effort on purchase requisitions used to create contract actions that replenish inventory stock levels for our depots (e.g. stock buys) related to Class IX consumable items. The cancellations will result in a lower regeneration of requirements destined for our depots the remainder of FY20. In addition, Suppliers will notice a reduction on the amount of solicitations for stock buys available for quoting on DIBBS. We anticipate it will take approximately a week to complete the cancellations, reassess inventory levels, and adjust stocking parameters before any new stock purchase requisitions are generated.


The Link  
 
The 17th issue of "The Link" newsletter(July 2020), a quarterly publication highlighting information important to our DLA suppliers is now online


WAWF URL CHANGE

As part of the planned PIEE migration from DISA hosting to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-hosting environment, the PIEE/WAWF URL updated from https://wawf.eb.mil  to  https://piee.eb.mil  effective July 1, 2020. The old URL is supposed to automatically redirect users. In the event this does not occur, users should access the new URL directly.