THE U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION (NRC) is issuing this Sources Sought Notice as a means of conducting market research to determine the availability of potential, qualified sources with the technical capability to provide all management, supervision, administration, equipment, and labor for a forthcoming real-time court reporting requirement at various locations across the country where hearings may be held. There is no solicitation at this time. This synopsis does not constitute a request for proposal; submission of any information in response to this synopsis is purely voluntary and the Government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 561492. The purpose of this announcement is to provide potential sources the opportunity to submit information regarding their capabilities to perform work for the NRC free of conflict of interest (COI). For information on NRC COI regulations, visit NRC Acquisition Regulation Subpart 2009.5 (http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/contracting/48cfr-ch20.html). All interested parties, including all categories of small businesses (small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, 8(a) firms, women-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and HUBZone small businesses) are invited to submit a response to the market research questions below. The capabilities package submitted by a vendor should demonstrate the firm's ability, capability, and responsibility to perform the principal components of work listed in this Sources Sought Notice. The package should also include past performance/experience regarding projects of similar scope listing the project title, general description, the dollar value of the contract, and name of the company, agency, or government entity for which the work was performed. Organizations responding to this market survey should keep in mind that only focused and pertinent information is requested. If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, organizations should address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements. Submission of additional materials such as glossy brochures or videos is discouraged. Background: In keeping with the NRC mission to protect the public health and safety, promote the common defense and security, and protect the environment in the nuclear power, nuclear waste, and nuclear material arenas, many public meetings, hearings, and depositions are held as part of the decision-making process in licensing nuclear facilities. These activities are an extremely important and part of the Commission's daily operations and regulatory review process. The NRC uses verbatim reporting at adjudicatory hearings, at oral arguments before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), and at various meetings with the Advisory Committee for Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), NRC staff, and Commission. The subject matter is very complex, highly technical and may involve the handling of classified or sensitive unclassified information, primarily in the field of nuclear reactors and nuclear energy. At ACRS meetings, there are frequent changes of speakers and, on many occasions, more than one speaker talking at a time. Some meetings are less technical but equally demanding, often extremely informal, portions of which may be highly sensitive or of a confidential nature. Meetings and investigations conducted by NRC offices are held in various locations throughout the country and sometimes require multiple, simultaneous reporting. Most of the adjudicatory proceedings are also conducted at various locations throughout the United States. Capabilities Sought: The NRC is seeking to identify sources that are capable of providing court reporting services for a variety of depositions, hearings, investigations, meetings and oral arguments throughout the United States including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, any U.S. protectorate, and the countries of Canada and Mexico for the NRC headquarters and regional field offices. Some of these hearings, depositions or investigations may require the handling of sensitive unclassified or classified material. It is anticipated that instances requiring the handling of sensitive unclassified or classified material, including safeguards will be held at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. Appropriate NRC security clearances, cleared facilities, cybersecurity approvals, and handling and processing of the material will be required. Specific activities include: 1. Provide personnel who are competent in court reporting as well as any necessary equipment to provide verbatim transcripts, miniscripts, computer files, electronic audio recordings, video tapes, CD-ROMs, and copies of these deliverables; 2. Provide full and complete transcribed verbatim record (i.e., transcript), which encompasses a record verbatim of everything spoken in English, and incorporate presentation materials into the transcript; 3. Provide a record of the names and identities of the parties who testify or speak at the proceedings or who request the entering of their appearance, and exhibits as directed; 4. Provide duly authorized notaries and reporters to administer oaths in the state in which the proceeding is being held. Provide the original, authenticated, transcript certification page as the last page of each transcript and indexing of transcripts as may be required; 5. Transcribe standard audio cassette tapes, micro tapes, video tapes, CD/DVD's, computer files and other prescribed material furnished by the NRC; 6. Furnish a CD or other electronic media with identical pagination and content as the original printed transcript; and Provide an electronic version of the transcript in Portable Document Format (.pdf) that conforms to the applicable Section 508 standards (see www.section508.gov). The submitted .pdf document will also be required to adhere to the NRC's Guidance for Submission of Electronic Docket materials under 10 CFR Part 2, Subpart J see (http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/getting-started.html). The .pdf version will also be required to include any prefiled testimony introduced during the session embedded in the .pdf document transcript. Additionally, the .pdf version will sometimes be required to be submitted via the NRC's Electronic Information Exchange (EIE) System see (http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/adjudicatory-sub.html). When submitted via EIE, hard copies will not usually be required. However, the NRC reserves the right to ask for hard copies in addition to submission via the NRC's EIE system. Submission of any materials other than those requested by this synopsis is discouraged. HOW TO RESPOND TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE If your organization has the capability and capacity to perform, as a prime contractor, one or more of the services described below, then please respond to this notice and provide written responses to the following information. In your response, please limit the number of pages to 10, do not include any proprietary or otherwise sensitive information in the response, and do not submit a proposal. If your organization has the potential capacity to perform these contract services, please provide the following information: 1. Organization name, address, email address, Web site address, DUNS number (if there is one) and telephone number. 2. The size of your organization with respect to NAICS code identified in this notice (i.e., "small" or "other than small"). If your organization is a small business under the aforementioned NAICS code, what type of small business (i.e., small disadvantaged business, woman-owned small business, economically disadvantaged woman-owned small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, 8(a), or HUBZone small business)? Specify all that apply. 3. Indicate if your organization offers any of the required capabilities described in this notice on one or more of your company's own Federal Government contracts (i.e., GSA Federal Supply Schedule contract) that the NRC could order from and, if so, the contract number and a description of the services available for ordering under that contract and the current expiration date of the contract. 4. Indicate if your organization could fulfill at least 50% of the dollars of the services that may be required with your own organization's employees. 5. Indicate if your organization has the personnel to support multiple non-local (i.e., outside of the Rockville, MD, area) meetings on-site and, if so, please describe. 6. Describe experience that your organization's current employees have with providing court reporting services. 7. Describe your organization's experience transcribing audio and video recordings, what electronic format(s) your organization can support, and your organization's experience providing electronic deliverables that comply with applicable Section 508 standards. 8. Does your organization have the capability to meet next-day deliverables (both electronic and hard copy) for transcription services? 9. Describe any organizational conflicts of interest that your organization has encountered with the NRC and how they were mitigated and/or resolved. 10. Describe the methodologies your organization has used to transmit source recordings and transcripts to and from Federal agencies. 11. Describe any cloud-based services that your organization has provided to the Federal government and discuss security controls and approvals that were required for those services. 12. Indicate the maximum size limit of an e-mail attachment that your organization permits its server to receive from external sources. 13. Describe your organization's experience working with digital certificates for file authentication or for secure transfer of electronic documents. 14. Describe your organization's experience working with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cyber security standards (e.g. Special Publication 800-53, 800-37, Cyber Security Framework) and address if your organization holds an authorization to operate (ATO) or has worked with an authorization to utilize (ATU) information system or service from a Federal agency, contractor, or FedRAMP-certified cloud provider. Provide as much detail as possible. 15. Describe your organization's experience working on contracts/orders that involved classified or sensitive (e.g. proprietary, confidential) hearings or interviews. 16. Indicate if your organization holds a facility clearance from any Federal agency and, if so, what level of classification is your facility/work-site rated for (e.g. Secret, Top Secret). Interested organizations responding to this Sources Sought Synopsis are encouraged to structure capability statements in the order of the area of consideration noted above. All capability statements sent in response to this notice must be submitted electronically, via e-mail to Jennifer Ford at
[email protected] in formats that are readable in either Microsoft Word 2013 or .pdf so that they are received at that email address within 15 calendar days from the date of publication of this notice. DISCLAIMER AND NOTES: Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's potential capability and capacity to perform the subject work. All responses to this notice must be 10MB or smaller in size; otherwise, the NRC server will reject the response. Respondents may submit more than one response in order to stay under the 10MB threshold.