Market Research, Polling, Printing, and Mailing Services for Million Veterans Program

for solicitation 36C24E26R0001 Answers in Bold Type 1. Solicitation no. 36C24E26R0001 is an unrestricted procurement. Given that FAR 52.219-9 Alternate II is checked and VAAR 852.219-70 is incorporated within the RFP, can the government please confirm: 1.1 Is a small business subcontracting plan required to be submitted with the proposal or is it a post-award requirement only for a successful large business offeror? The small business subcontracting plan should be submitted with the proposal. 1.2 If such a plan is required pre- or post-award, can the Government please provide the applicable small business subcontracting percentage goals (e.g., Small Business, VOSB, SDVOSB, WOSB, HUBZone, etc.) for this procurement? The Subcontracting goals are required and they are set at 3% SDVOSB, 5% VOSB, 3% Hubzone, 5% SDB, 5% WOSB, and 17.5% SB, or the minimum goals for award of subcontracts to VA verified service-disabled veteran-owned small business and veteran-owned small business SDVOSB/VOSB shall be at least commensurate with the Department's annual SDVOSB/VOSB subcontracting goals. 2. The Addendum to FAR 52.212-1, Section II.A.4 requires offerors to submit either a completed FAR 52.212-3 form or a printout of the ORCA certification. Â As the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) system has been decommissioned and fully replaced by the System for Award Management (SAM), could the Government please confirm that a printout from SAM.gov showing that an offeror's annual representations and certifications are active and complete is an acceptable submission method in lieu of an ORCA certification? A printout from SAM with the offeror s representations and certifications is acceptable. 3. The description of Task 9 in the PWS specifies a pre-folded survey in a 6x10 envelope. However, the

pricing sheet for Task 9 includes the MHS Survey (52 pages) Mailed to Veterans.  A survey of this length cannot be pre-folded into the specified envelope given its thickness. Should offerors assume this specific survey will require a different format, such as a 9x12 flat envelope? Yes. 4. Task 2 requires the contractor to review and process whitemail.  Task 12 is for producing Personalized Letters in response to whitemail. To ensure accurate

pricing, should the labor for handling, reviewing, and processing returned whitemail be factored into the per-piece cost of the various survey items under Task 2, or is it covered elsewhere? It should be factored into the per-piece cost of Task 12. It should not be factored into the per-piece costs of the scanning of returned surveys. Whitemail is generally letters or notes received separately or included in with a survey response. It may result in the need to respond to the sender using templated language provided by the VA. The costs for Task 12 should reflect per piece costs for assessing the whitemail that is received, determining the response template to use, preparing and mailing the response and documenting that process and providing the details of that response back to the VA and any misc efforts with the VA to ensure that the sender receives excellent customer service. The processing of the white mail may result in simply adding it to the agreed upon tracker for action by the VA and others will result in the contractor creating a letter based on templated language and mailing it to the sender in addition to adding it to the tracker. 5. To accurately estimate the labor associated with handling returned correspondence, can the Government provide an assumed ratio or percentage of whitemail expected relative to the volume of returned surveys? Approximately 0.5% of returned surveys and postcards result in whitemail activity. 8. Should offerors assume that every page of every returned survey must be reviewed by personnel to identify and process any marginal comments, treating them with the same level of care as whitemail as described in Task 2? Yes. 9. The

pricing sheet requests a single unit cost for Project Management and Data Security hours. Should offerors propose a single, blended average labor rate for all personnel contributing to this task, or would the VA prefer a breakdown of hours and rates by specific labor categories (e.g., Project Manager, Data Analyst, Security Specialist)? Yes, it should be a blended average labor rate for all personnel contributing to the task. 10. For Task 11, Design, Production and Distribution of Business Reply Envelopes, what envelope size should be assumed for

pricing? 9 x12 flat envelope 11. For Task 12, Design, Production and Distribution of Personalized Letters, what is the assumed page count for these response letters? 1 single page 12. Under the predecessor contract, the MVP Appreciation Pins have been provided as Government-Furnished Equipment (GFE) for insertion into the mailings. For

pricing consistency, can the Government confirm that all offerors should assume this GFE arrangement will continue, and that they should only price the labor for insertion? Yes. 13. Given the solicitation's estimated start date of May 2026, could the Government please clarify if the evaluation of an offeror s technical approach and risk rating specifically consider whether an offeror possesses a current, active VA-E ATO covering the activities and systems to be used in executing this work as an indicator of ability to ensure no delays in contract performance? Yes offeror s are to include all information related to the ability to obtain and/or related to existing ATOs that can be leveraged to ensure continuation of operations. 14. Can the VA clarify the escalation procedures and response timelines for correspondence containing perceived life-threatening notes ( hotmail )? As soon as the offeror sees life-threatening notes, they must initiate a workflow to get that information to the VA as soon as possible during their business hours. 14. Can offerors use the same projects for "Relevant Experience" and "Past Performance"? If yes, can the government please clarify what different information is expected in each to avoid redundancy? Relevant Experience reflects whether the offeror has performed work of similar type, size and scope. Relevant experience is independent from the past performance factor. Past performance is an assessment of how well a contractor performed under previously awarded contracts. If using the same past projects for both volumes, then the offeror should emphasize the areas pertaining to each specific volume. 15. Can VA please confirm that the portion of unit price related to postage is a pass-through and this amount would be variable based on action by the United States Postal Service (USPS)? The mailing unit prices will fluctuate annually based on USPS rate changes. The changes will be updated in the base contract by modification as soon as USPS approves their rates for the period in question. 16. As noted on page 11 of the solicitation, the quantities are estimates and actual quantities and performance periods will be awarded by individual task order. Since this is a firm-fixed-price contract, how should the contractor handle any changes to the quantities from those provided for the bid? This is especially important for the Exposure Surveys (173,000; 233,333; and 433,333) and the MVP Newsletter (200,000). The estimated quantities cover entire periods and may fluctuate. Firm-fixed price task orders will award specific quantities over specific periods. 17. Are the quantities provided in the solicitation before or after the contractor has run mailing list hygiene procedures to maximize the quality of the mailing list? The quantities on the solicitation price list are estimates. Actual quantities will be awarded by individual task order and include the final quality of the mailing list information. 18. When possible, will the contractor be provided mail-out quantities greater than those provided in the solicitation so that the contractor can reduce the mail files to the solicitation quantities? If so, will the contractor be provided with criteria for reducing the quantities to achieve the maximum benefit for the MVP? The quantities on the solicitation price list are estimates and may fluctuate. 19. Are postage costs to be included in the bid or not? Since postage is a major cost factor, can the contractor ask for an adjustment to the firm-fixed price if postage proves to be higher than anticipated in the bid? See question 15. 20. What is the frequency that each of the printed materials is distributed? For example, daily/weekly/monthly/annually? The newsletter is distributed 1x annually. The appointment letters are distributed up to 2x week. The invitational mailings are each sent 1x month (1 week each month for each invitational mailing). All survey mailings are sent each week. 21. Are the mailing quantities spread fairly evenly across the year? See question 20. The newsletter is shipped all at once. The appointment letters as they are scheduled each week. Invitational mailings are spread evenly across the year as are surveys. There may be times when a new survey is launched and will be sent spread out over a few months as opposed to spread out over years. All of this work is on going throughout the year. 22. Is the same envelope used within each envelope type? For example, all mailings requiring #10 windows use the same #10 windows, etc. Also, what is the required paper weight for the letters, surveys, and postcards? Minimum 24 lb for letters and surveys choose what will ensure no bleed throughs even with solid color banners in footer or headers; easy to read and fill out surveys that are double-sided and will not cause errors in the data extraction/scanning process. Minimum 100 lb for postcards choose what will optimize