Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 61 / Thursday, March 29, 2012 / Notices 19019 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention 

Advisory Committee to the Director 

(ACD), Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention—Health Disparities 

Subcommittee (HDS) 

In accordance with section 10(a)(2) of 

the Federal Advisory Committee Act 

(Pub. L. 92–463), the Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention (CDC) 

announces the following meeting of the 

aforementioned subcommittee: 

Time and Date: 9 a.m.–2 p.m. EDT, April 

19, 2012. 

Place: CDC, Building 21, Room 1204B, 

1600 Clifton Road NE., Atlanta, Georgia 

30333. 

Status: Open to the public, limited only by 

the space available. The meeting room 

accommodates approximately 20 people. The 

public is welcome to participate during the 

public comment, which is tentatively 

scheduled from 1:30 p.m. until 2 p.m. This 

meeting is also available by teleconference. 

Please dial (866) 561–5277 and enter code 

2238494. 

Purpose: The Subcommittee will provide 

advice to the CDC Director through the ACD 

on strategic and other health disparities and 

health equity issues and provide guidance on 

opportunities for CDC. 

Matters To Be Discussed: The agenda will 

include a presentation by the Institute of 

Medicine Roundtable on the Promotion of 

Health Equity and the Elimination of Health 

Disparities. 

The agenda is subject to change as 

priorities dictate. 

For Further Information Contact: Leandris 

Liburd, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A., Designated 

Federal Officer, Health Disparities 

Subcommittee, Advisory Committee to the 

Director, CDC, 1600 Clifton Road NE., M/S 

K–77, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, telephone 

(770) 488–8200, email: LEL1@cdc.gov. 

The Director, Management Analysis and 

Services Office, has been delegated the 

authority to sign Federal Register notices 

pertaining to announcements of meetings and 

other committee management activities, for 

both the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention and the Agency for Toxic 

Substances and Disease Registry. 

Dated: March 22, 2012. 

Elaine L. Baker, 

Director, Management Analysis and Services 

Office, Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention . 

[FR Doc. 2012–7530 Filed 3–28–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4163–18–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services 

[CMS–7031–N] 

Announcement Notice; Establishment 

of a Federally Funded Research and 

Development Center 

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & 

Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces our 

intention to establish a Federally 

Funded Research and Development 

Center (FFRDC) to facilitate the 

modernization of business processes 

and supporting systems and their 

operations. 

DATES: Effective Date: This notice is 

effective on March 29, 2012. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Candice Savoy, (410) 786–7494 or 

Candice.Savoy@cms.hhs.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

Section 219 of the fiscal year 2012 

Omnibus Bill requires Centers for 

Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to 

issue a Federal Register notice that 

outlines how a CMS Federally Funded 

Research and Development Center 

(FFRDC) would meet the specific 

requirements identified in Federal 

Acquisition Regulation (FAR 35.017–2), 

CMS’ agency procedures that ensure 

small business competitiveness is 

maintained, and the outline of a 

transparent award and governance 

process to be employed by the CMS 

FFRDC. This notice is CMS’ intent to 

sponsor an FFRDC, which complies 

with FAR 35.017–2 as discussed below. 

CMS has a need for assistance in 

developing requirements, identifying 

strategies for meeting statutory and 

programmatic requirements, analyzing 

existing CMS systems and approaches to 

meeting needs and developing metrics 

and measures for assessing agency 

performance. Meeting these various 

needs will require the services of an 

organization that will have access to 

confidential and proprietary agency 

information. An FFRDC would be 

appropriate to provide these needed 

services. CMS has surveyed the existing 

FFRDCs and does not believe that there 

is an established FFRDC that could 

effectively meet all of its requirements. 

Currently, CMS has obtained 

specialized consulting services from the 

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) FFRDC. 

However, this work has been focused on 

the modernization of CMS’ Information 

Technology resources in accordance 

with the scope of the IRS contract. The 

IRS FFRDC, other FFRDC’s, and other 

Government wide contracts analyzed 

will not meet the needs of CMS. CMS 

has examined other contract vehicles 

available, for example, the Government 

Wide Acquisition Contracts, the 

National Institutes of Health Chief 

Information Officer Solutions and 

Partners, Alliant and (8)a Streamlined 

Technology Acquisition Resources for 

Services and the General Services 

Administration schedules. Based on a 

market assessment of those vehicles, 

there is not a single source to fit CMS’ 

unique needs. In addition, since the 

contractors on these contract vehicles 

have other Government contracts and 

compete for business, it may interfere 

with their ability to maintain objectivity 

and independence for the sponsoring 

agency, which cause conflicts of interest 

concerns. Therefore, it is appropriate to 

establish an FFRDC for CMS, since 

existing alternative sources cannot 

satisfy current and future agency 

requirements. 

CMS proposes to establish an FFRDC 

to encompass all of CMS’ needs, 

including those associated with the 

Patient Protection and Affordable Care 

Act (Pub. L. 111–148), which was 

enacted on March 30, 2010 (the 

Affordable Care Act), and other current 

and future statutorily driven 

requirements. There is a need for an 

independent organization to assist in 

strategic/tactical planning and analysis, 

conceptual planning and prototyping, 

long term acquisition planning and 

requirements development, 

organizational planning and 

relationship management, continuous 

process improvement, strategic 

technology evaluation, and feasibility 

analysis and design in the areas of 

policy, business operations and 

technology. 

CMS has transmitted the required 

three notices over a 90-day period to the 

Government wide Point of Entry 

(Federal Business Opportunities) and 

published these notices in the Federal 

Register on April 13, 2011 (76 FR 

20673), May 13, 2011 (76 FR 28042), 

and June 14, 2011 (76 FR 34713) 

respectively, indicating the agency’s 

intention to sponsor an FFRDC. These 

notices indicated the scope and nature 

of the effort to be performed and 

requested comments. Additionally, CMS 

has considered the concerns and 

interest expressed by many Federal 

Government contractors and contractor 

organizations to ensure the 

establishment of the FFRDC is operated 

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19020 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 61 / Thursday, March 29, 2012 / Notices 

within the parameters of its original 

intent. 

There is sufficient Government 

expertise available to adequately and 

objectively evaluate the work of the 

FFRDC. Program management 

responsibilities for the FFRDC will be 

placed in CMS’ Office of the 

Administrator, Chief Operating Office to 

ensure the proper use and evaluation of 

the FFRDC. CMS has established an 

Executive Steering Committee 

comprised of senior agency leadership 

to oversee and monitor performance 

occurring under the FFRDC. We note 

that the Executive Office of the 

President, Office of Science and 

Technology was notified in March 2011 

of our intent to establish an FFRDC. 

CMS will use established controls to 

ensure the costs of services under the 

FFRDC are reasonable. In accordance 

with FAR 15.404, the Contracting 

Officer is required to ensure the final 

agreed-to contract price is fair and 

reasonable. The CMS Contracting 

Officer will ensure that any FFRDC 

contract costs are fair and reasonable by 

performing a combination of cost, price, 

and cost realism analysis and obtaining 

cost audit support, as necessary, to 

assess the offerors understanding of the 

work and to verify that the offeror has 

proposed realistic costs commensurate 

with the methods and approaches 

proposed. Additionally, CMS will seek 

competition for the establishment and 

award of the basic FFRDC contract to 

help ensure that costs are fair and 

reasonable. 

CMS clearly defines the scope of the 

FFRDC’s responsibilities to enable 

differentiation between the work that 

the FFRDC can perform and the work 

that should be performed by nonFFRDCs. The FFRDC sponsoring 

agreement fully describes the activities 

to be performed by the FFRDC as 

follows: 

1. Strategic/Tactical Planning and 

Analysis. 

2. Conceptual Planning and 

Prototyping. 

3. Acquisition Assistance. 

4. Organizational Planning and 

Relationship Management. 

5. Continuous Process Improvement. 

6. Strategic Technology Evaluation. 

7. Feasibility Analysis and Design. 

CMS will maintain a reasonable 

continuity in the level of support to the 

FFRDC. Current CMS and legislative 

requirements will provide sufficient 

activities to an FFRDC to ensure they 

are a viable entity to meet CMS’ needs. 

CMS intends on awarding a single 

Indefinite Delivery—Indefinite Quantity 

contract and will issue live task orders 

for the offerors to propose during the 

competition, therefore, we will award 

these task orders with the award of the 

contract and periodic task orders will be 

awarded thereafter. 

CMS will ensure that the organization 

meets all of the prescribed requirements 

for independence and objectivity in 

performing CMS’ work. The sponsoring 

program management office will review 

the FFRDC regularly to ensure 

compliance with this requirement. The 

sponsoring agreement between CMS and 

the FFRDC will require a clause that 

prohibits the FFRDC from competing 

with other non-FFRDCs for Federal 

procurements. Additionally, CMS will 

conduct an annual organizational 

conflicts of interest audit of the FFRDC. 

The FFRDC will not perform quantity 

production or manufacturing of items. 

We note that the Secretary of the 

Department of Health and Human 

Services approved the establishment of 

the FFRDC on March 17, 2011. 

II. Small Business Competitiveness 

CMS has a long-standing history of 

exceeding its small business goals and 

is committed to continuing to maintain 

small business participation in its 

programs by following established FAR 

and Health and Human Services 

Acquisition Regulation requirements to 

ensure small businesses are provided 

maximum practicable opportunity. CMS 

will ensure that every requirement, as 

part of its governance process, will be 

reviewed by the Department small 

business specialist before initiating any 

contracting action under the FFRDC. 

Additionally, contracting staff and 

senior executives at CMS who are 

responsible for meeting small business 

goals have a performance element 

established in their performance plans 

to ensure we maximize the use of small 

business contracting at CMS. Finally, 

the HHS Office of Small and 

Disadvantaged Business has directed 

CMS and all HHS Operating Divisions 

to develop a fiscal year 2012 Small 

Business Strategic Plan to ensure we 

meet or exceed our specific small 

business goals. We note that CMS has 

recently submitted this plan to HHS as 

requested. 

III. Transparent Award and 

Governance Process 

CMS will conduct the FFRDC award 

in accordance with FAR 15 Contracting 

by Negotiation procedures. CMS posted 

a draft solicitation on the Federal 

Business Opportunities Web site in 

November 2011, soliciting comments 

from the industry. The final solicitation 

will be posted on the Federal Business 

Opportunities Web site as a full and 

open competition (see https://www.fbo.

gov/index?s=opportunity&

mode=form&id=

39f12bfda712bdd2248a8a94795fb1b3&

tab=core&tabmode=list&=). CMS will 

make all required public 

announcements of the contract award 

through the Federal Business 

Opportunity Web site, HHS award 

notice requirements and the Federal 

Procurement Data System. This FFRDC 

will be awarded via FAR 15 procedures. 

Therefore, all task orders awarded to the 

FFRDC will be submitted to the Federal 

Procurement Data System and will be 

publically available on the usaspending.

gov Web site. 

The FFRDC will be governed by an 

Executive Steering Committee and a 

Charter, managed by CMS’ Office of the 

Administrator, Chief Operating Office, 

that defines CMS’ policies and 

procedures for managing and using the 

FFRDC. It also provides guidelines and 

procedures for ensuring compliance 

with the Government-wide policies set 

forth in FAR 35.017. 

Additionally, CMS will evaluate the 

effectiveness of the FFRDC by 

establishing a quality performance plan 

for monitoring performance of the 

FFRDC. The Executive Steering 

Committee will establish goals and 

objectives each year for the FFRDC that 

strive for improvements in operations 

and financial savings of CMS operations 

as well as all the programs CMS 

oversees. The Executive Steering 

Committee will appoint staff to create 

and monitor a quality performance plan 

for assessing these goals and objectives. 

Dated: March 12, 2012. 

Marilyn Tavenner, 

Acting Administrator, Centers for Medicare 

& Medicaid Services. 

[FR Doc. 2012–7495 Filed 3–28–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Administration for Children and 

Families 

Tribal Consultation Meeting 

AGENCY: Administration for Children 

and Families’ Office of Head Start 

(OHS). 

ACTION: Notice of meeting. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Improving 

Head Start for School Readiness Act of 

2007, Public Law 110–134, notice is 

hereby given of a one-day Tribal 

Consultation Session to be held between 

the Department of Health and Human 

Services, Administration for Children 

and Families, Office of Head Start 

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