FEDERAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES TO REPLACE THE COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY

Notice Date

December 24, 2001

Contracting Office

Department of Commerce, Office of Acquisition Management, 14th and Constitution, NW, Room 6412, Washington, DC 20230

ZIP Code

20230

Description

This is a special notice for information. Recently, Federal Business Opportunities (www.fedbizopps.gov) was designated in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) as the single point of universal electronic public access on the Internet to governmentwide Federal procurement opportunities that exceed $25,000 (see 66 Fed. Reg. 27407, May 16, 2001). The FAR requires agencies, as of October 1, 2001, to use FedBizOpps to provide access to public notices of procurement actions over $25,000 that are currently required to be published in the Commerce Business Daily (CBD) along with associated solicitations and amendments. Designation of this one-stop online gateway represents an important step in the ongoing transformation to a more efficient, accessible, citizen-centric e-government. Agencies will be in a transition period through December 31, 2001. During this time, the FAR requires agencies to ensure that notice is provided both to FedBizOpps and the CBD. However, the FAR provides that, as of January 1, 2002, agencies will no longer be required to provide duplicate notice in the CBD and instead may rely exclusively on the mandatory notice in FedBizOpps to provide the required access. This transition will enable agencies to realize the efficiencies in electronic processes that help to justify their investments in e-government. Accordingly, effective January 4, 2002, the Department of Commerce will cease publication of the CBD through the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). Agencies should recognize FedBizOpps as the official source for all procurement information and notices to be published under 41 U.S.C. 416(a)(2)(B) and the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(e) and (k)). Other notices that would be published, such as notices of subcontracting opportunities (15 U.S.C. 637(k)) will also be made available to FedBizOpps. Agencies and business concerns should modify their solicitation practices to use the electronic notice services of FedBizOpps. Notices received on the CBD system by midnight, January 1, and manuscripts received by 3:00 p.m. on January 2, will be included in the final GPO print version of the CBD to be issued on January 4, 2002. Any notices validated for inclusion in the January 4 printed issue of CBD will remain available in the CBDNet database of active notices for the required 15 days. Once they have all successfully been transferred into the archive database the active database will be shut down. This archive database will continue to be available on CBDNet as part of the Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection. As the manager of this collection, the Superintendent of Documents at the U.S. Government Printing Office has a commitment to maintaining permanent public access for the materials included in the collection. The General Services Administration, which manages FedBizOpps.gov, will provide files which can be downloaded free of charge to any vendor, service provider, government entity, or other public or private organization that wishes to print the content of FedBizOpps. The files provide the same information that is currently in the CBD printed version. These files are available at FTP://FTP.EPS.GOV. If you have questions regarding the ftp site, please contact the FedBizOpps support desk at fbo.support@gsa.gov or toll-free at 877-472-3779. If you are interested in obtaining a printed version of FedBizOpps/CBD, please contact Yancey Stern (202) 482-5781 or ystern@doc.gov at the Department of Commerce. A list of service providers who offer this service to the public will be made available on a Department of Commerce website in the near future, a list of service providers who provide printed versions of the FedBizOpps. Accordingly, service providers who offer printed versions of FedBizOpps and wish to be identified on this website should provide the following information to Mr. Stern by e-mail or mail (Department of Commerce, Office of Acquisition Management, 14th and Constitution, NW, Room 6412, Washington, D.c 20230): (1)name of entity, (2) phone number, (3) fax number, (4) e-mail address, (5) URL, and (6) contact point.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20011227/SPMSC001.HTM (M-356 SN5158W6)