Regulatory Enforcement Fairness
Office of the National Ombudsman
U.S. Small Business Administration
409 3rd Street S.W., Washington, DC 20416
ombudsman@sba.gov
 

During the recovery stages of the 2019 Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri floods, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is going to be awarding approximately 36 contract actions. Of those, 6 actions have been determined not to be appropriate for a Small Business set-aside either based on complexity, bonding limits or a combination of both. Thus these actions have been awarded as Task Orders using our RDI (Rapid Disaster Infrastructure) contract(s). The remaining 30 or so contracts will or have been issued using processes in accordance with the Stafford Act-

“FAR Subpart 26.2 implements the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. § 5150), which provides a preference, to the extent feasible and practicable, for local area organizations, firms, and individuals to perform major disaster or emergency assistance activities via contract or agreement. “Local firm” means a private organization, firm, or individual residing or doing business primarily in a major disaster or emergency area. “Major disaster or emergency area” means the area included in the official Presidential declaration(s) and any additional areas identified by the Department of Homeland Security. Major disaster declarations and emergency declarations are published in the Federal Register and are available at http://www.fema.gov/news/disasters.fema.”

The President has declared 56 counties in Iowa, 81 counties in Nebraska, and 5 counties in Missouri as Disasters areas.

As such, it is anticipated that many, if not all of the contracts will be advertised only to businesses that are a part of the pre-qualified contractor pool. For information on how to be a part of that pool please see the beta.sam.gov notice (W9128F19R0064). We are still evaluating packages submitted by contractors that would like to be part of the pool every 90 days. Please keep in mind that the Stafford Act does not impact who can perform as a subcontractor. For that reason the Contracting Division will be posting award information on beta.sam.gov.