8(a) on-ramp begins for government's main human capital vehicle

The General Services Administration and Office of Personnel Management have moved ahead an on-ramp for their main contract vehicle for acquiring services in support of human capital initiatives.

With a solicitation posted to Beta.Sam.Gov Nov. 27, GSA and OPM opened up for bids for both Pool 1 and Pool 2 of a new track within the Human Capital and Training Solutions vehicle but reserved exclusively for 8(a) small businesses.

GSA and OPM plan to make up to 40 awards combined and that breaks out to 20 per pool. The idea is to expand 8(a) competition within the program and allow for competitive set-asides, GSA said in an accompanying announcement on its Interact portal.

The combined ceiling value for the HCaTS 8(a) track will be $5.57 billion with Pool 1 allotted up to $3.45 billion and Pool 2 given a maximum $2.3 billion.

Work will take over an initial base period between the date of the notice for awardees to proceed and Nov. 9, 2021. That will be followed by a five-year option period through Nov. 9, 2026 and a potential six-month extension to May 9, 2027.

Responses to the request for proposals are due no later than Jan. 28, 2020 at 6 p.m. Eastern time. This on-ramp comes nearly three years since GSA and OPM awarded the first iteration of the HCaTS vehicle to 20 companies.

HCaTS has nearly 46 small business primes after a series of other on-ramp awards earlier this year.