The National Institutes of Health intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with Bright Horizons Family Solutions. The NIH Back-up Care program provides emergency short-term care for NIH federal employees when their regular care arrangements are not available. This service provides in-home and center-based care for children and in-home care for adult-dependents. This program provides an invaluable service to NIH federal employees to continue their work when telework is not an option due to their primary responsibilities, such as patient care, animal care, and facility maintenance. This program directly impacts the agency's ability to complete its mission. This extension will permit NIH to explore a new contract model, establish a new period of performance and to avoid disruption of services while a master contract is being re-competed. Responses The proposed acquisition action is for items and services for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of FAR 13.106-1 (b). If you believe you can provide the items or services requested, all responsible sources may submit a capability statement, which shall be considered by the agency, to the Contracting Officer, Anne Mineweaser, at
[email protected] referencing notice number NIH-OLAO-OD3-NOI5420463 by 5:00pm EST, on August 16, 2019. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract acquisition based upon responses to the notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed. Information provided will be used to assess tradeoffs and alternatives available for the potential requirement and may lead to the development of a solicitation. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. Any solicitation resulting from the analysis of information obtained will be announced to the public in Federal Business Opportunities in accordance with the FAR Part 5. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).