The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also referred to as

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
  also referred to as Recovery Act or ARRA,
  provides an unprecedented opportunity for NIH to
  provide two-year funding to help stimulate the
  economy, create or retain jobs, and accelerate
  the pace of scientific research. Along with this
  opportunity comes increasing expectations of
  accountability and transparency for which the
  government is held accountable for every dollar
  spent.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• The initial OALM Guidance on the American
  Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was dated
  March of 2009. The revised version was released
  July 13, 2009 which is available on the OALM,
  Office of Acquisition Management and Policy
  DAPE website along with all the pertinent
  attachments.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• ARRA funds are available for obligation until
  September 30, 2010. Awards shall be made only if
  funds are available, a bona fide need exists, and
  the contract is made consistent with FAR and
  applicable fiscal restrictions on the use of
  appropriated funds.
• Funds remain available for disbursement (also
  called expenditure) through September 30, 2015.
  After September 30, 2015, all ARRA appropriation
  accounts that provided the special two-year
  monies to NIH will expire, making those accounts
  unavailable for expenditure to cover any unpaid
  invoices 31 U.S.C. Sec. 1552(a) and 31 U.S.C.
  Sec. 1553(a). However, NIH Institutes and
  Centers ICs also includes the National Library
  of Medicine (NLM) and the Office of the Director
  (OD) are strongly encouraged to select those
  acquisitions which are most likely to accomplish
  the following objectives, as appropriate, within
  two years of award

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Review and Approvals
• All reviews and approvals of proposed contract
  actions made with ARRA funds must be done prior
  to award. (Please use the Proposed Recovery Act
  Contract Action Approval Form located on the
  OAMP website) Program Staff must coordinate with
  their Director, OA, and CO as to whether or not
  the proposed contract action complies with one or
  more of the Recovery Act principles listed

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Preserves and creates jobs and promotes economic
  recovery
• Assists those most impacted by the recession
• Provides investments to increase economic
  efficiency by spurring technological advances in
  science and health
• Invest in transportation, environmental
  protection, and other infrastructure that will
  provide long-term economic benefits or
• Helps to stabilize state and local government
  budgets, in order to minimize and avoid
  reductions in essential services and
  counterproductive state and local tax increases.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• There are different approvals and review levels
  based on the dollar amount and type the actions
• Research Development (RD)
• Non RD (Over 500,000)
• Non RD (Up to 500,000)

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Competition
• All actions should be competed to the maximum
  extent practical. In the event an action is not
  competed sufficient market research must be
  conducted to support the award. A sources sought
  notice shall be posted in FedBizOpps for all ARRA
  funded contract actions anticipated to be
  non-competitive and exceed the micro-purchase
  threshold with the exception of 8(a), Ability
  One, in-scope modifications and orders issued
  under multiple award contracts whereby one of the
  exceptions to fair opportunity applies. Sources
  sought notices must be posted for a minimum of 10
  calendar days.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Terms and Conditions and Federal Acquisition
  Regulation Requirements
• Follow the requirements in FAR Subpart 5.7 for
  pre-solicitation and award notices FAR Case
  2009-010
• Follow the requirements in FAR Section 4.605(c)
  to distinguish Recovery Act actions in the
  Departmental Contract Information System (DCIS)
  and the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS)

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Use these additional FAR requirements to
  implement the Recovery Act
• FAR Case 2009-008, American Recovery and
  Reinvestment Act Buy American Requirements for
  Construction Material
• FAR Case 2009-009, American Recovery and
  Reinvestment Act Reporting Requirements
• FAR Case 2009-011, American Recovery and
  Reinvestment Act GAO/IG Access and
• FAR Case 2009-012, American Recovery and
  Reinvestment Act Whistleblower Protections.
• The Recovery Act solicitation provisions and
  contract clauses are included in the NCI
  Workforms which can be found on the NCI OA
  intranet at http//oa-intranet.nci.nih.gov/workfor
  ms_set.htm. Additionally, the provisions and
  clauses for commercial items and simplified
  acquisitions can also be found on this website.
  These provisions and clauses will be mandatory
  for NIH awards obligating ARRA funds.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Existing Awards
• ARRA funds may be used for acquisitions prior to
  the effective date of the Recovery Act. However,
  solicitations must be amended to identify them as
  ARRA related actions. Also, the ARRA clauses
  mentioned above must be negotiated into the
  contracts as part of the award process and award
  reports must be amended to identify them as ARRA
  funds related actions. Co-funding of contract
  actions awarded with ARRA funds is acceptable by
  two or more ICs as long as co-funders used ARRA
  funds ONLY and all applicable rules are followed.
  Co-mingling of Non-ARRA funds with ARRA funds is
  NOT permitted.
• All ARRA funds must be tracked and reported
  separately from NIHs regular appropriations.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• In order to avoid co-mingling of funds a separate
  Line Item with the ARRA associated funding
  should be used when multiple lines of accounting
  are included under a contract/order.   Line item
  accounting on these contracts is tied to specific
  tasks and tracked on an invoice log to ensure
  that all ARRA funds are clearly for a specific
  task associated with the ARRA approved
  acquisition that has separate pricing.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Requirements for Entering Awards into DCIS
• ICs must ensure that all reporting related to the
  Recovery Act is complete and accurate.
• Use of all ARRA funding must be reported through
  DCIS/FPDS. ICs are encouraged to use PRISM to
  access DCIS.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• When entering data in DCIS on any action
  (including modifications) funded by the Recovery
  Act, ICs must enter the Treasury Account Symbol
  (TAS) in the Description of Requirement field
  (DCIS Item 6M). The TAS code should be entered
  with TAS preceding the code and TAS following
  the code. The code itself should have spaces
  between the segments, i.e., Agency code (2
  characters) would be entered followed by a space
  then the Account code (4 characters). The entry
  would appear as follows TASXX XXXXTAS
• Add the words Recovery Act to the Description
  of Requirements field immediately following the
  TAS.
• Please see Attachment G on the OAMP-DAPE
  website under the Recovery Act Guidance located
  at http//oamp.od.nih.gov/Division/DAPE/dape_links
  .asp

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• FedBizOpps Notices Reporting
• The word RECOVERY must be in the title for all
  FBO notices (sources sought, presolicitation and
  award notices)
• When creating a presolicitation notice in FBO,
  identify whether or not it is a Recovery Act
  action by selecting the yes radio button for
  the Is this a Recovery and Reinvestment Act
  action field.
• Presolicitation Notices of TO/DOs 25,000 and
  above (which includes GWACs, MACs, FSS contracts,
  whether single or multiple award) must be posted
  for information purposes only.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• FedBizOpps Posting and Notice Requirements
• NOTE The NIH Business System (NBS PRISM)
  cannot be used for posting pre-solicitation and
  award notices to FBO when ARRA funds are utilized
  for an acquisition.  All presolicitation and
  award notices for contract actions funded in
  whole or in part by the Recovery Act must be
  posted directly on the FBO website.  An
  individual FBO User Account is required for this
  process.  Those without FBO accounts should
  immediately register on the FBO website.  If you
  have any questions, please contact Raymond Dillon
  at 301-496-2507 or dillonr_at_od.nih.gov.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Requirements for Posting Award Notices
• Synopses of proposed award notices in FedBizOpps
  shall follow the procedures at FAR Section 5.301,
  except that the following supersede the
  exceptions at FAR Section 5.301(b) (3) through
  (8)
• For any contract action exceeding 500,000,
  including all modifications and orders under task
  and delivery order contracts, publicize the award
  notice and ensure that the description required
  by 5.207(a)(16) includes a narrative of the
  products and services (including construction)
  that is clear and unambiguous to the general
  public.
• For contract actions of 25,000 but less than and
  including 500,000, including all modifications
  and orders under task and delivery order
  contracts issued under an existing contract that
  was both fixed price and competitive, the award
  notice shall indicate that it is for information
  purposes only.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Regardless of dollar value, if the contract
  action, including all modifications and orders
  under task and delivery order contracts as
  defined in FAR Section 5.703, is not both
  fixed-price and competitive, the award notice
  must include the rationale for using other than
  fixed-price and/or competitive procedures.
• All award notices must include the word
  RECOVERY as the first word in theTitle field
  prior to the actual title of the award notice.
  Additionally, to assist with tracking the use of
  ARRA funds, the Dun and Bradstreet (DB) D-U-N-S
  number for the awardee(s) shall be included in
  all award notices.
• When creating an award notice in FBO, identify
  whether or not it is a Recovery Act action by
  selecting the yes radio button for the Is this
  a Recovery and Reinvestment Act action field.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Reviews of American Recovery and Reinvestment
  Contracts/Orders
• OAMP will be conducting reviews of ARRA award
  files for compliance. The NIH Final Recovery
  Act Checklist (Attachment E) must be in the file
  of all awards along with all supporting
  documentation of reviews and approvals. It is
  encouraged that each IC develop their own
  internal controls for compliance to be used as
  well. Some suggestions are
• Develop Standard Operating Procedures
  specifically for ARRA funded awards
• Perform annual contract quality assessment
  reviews of contract files of ARRA funded awards
  to ensure compliance
• Ensure that ALL public notices of awards,
  modifications and presolicitations included
  RECOVERY ACT in the title and descriptions
• Ensure that all the proper and current ARRA
  clauses have been included with awards and
  modifications

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

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