Request for Information - Responder Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Transport Containers

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and market research planning purposes. This RFI shall not be construed as an obligation on the part of the Government. This is NOT a Request for Quotations or Proposals (RFQ or RFP). No solicitation document exists, and the Government may or may not issue a formal solicitation as a result of the responses received to this RFI. The Government will not pay for any response or demonstration expenses.

All costs incurred responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party's expense. Failure to respond to this RFI will not preclude participation in any future solicitation. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate.

Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organizations’ capabilities. The Government’s explicit intent through this RFI is to obtain general product information. The Government is not requesting and does not want to receive from respondents any proprietary data, trade secrets, business sensitive information, or information considered CONFIDENTIAL under 18 U.S.C. §1905.

The Government’s constraint does not in any way relieve contractors from their responsibility to properly mark proprietary data when it is provided, nor does it alleviate any requirement for the Government to protect marked data. The Government is not obligated to protect unmarked data. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Federal Government and will not be returned.

I. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) is seeking information on commercially available transport containers. The potential contamination of PPE with hazardous substances can lead to health risks if the gear is not properly cleaned prior to storage. Storage containers, dependent on composition, may exacerbate the problem by absorbing these harmful materials.

NUSTL is specifically seeking information on effective solutions to transport and store contaminated gear safely for first responder use. Products must be available as commercial-off-the-shelf products and: • Must be made of material suitable to be decontaminated. • Must be easily portable by a single person. • Must fit within the trunk of a vehicle. • Comprised of a water-resistant material, with sealable mechanism • Should have multiple compartments.

This information is being sought for the DHS Science and Technology Directorate’s System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER) program which provides information on commercially available equipment to assist response organizations in equipment selection and procurement. The SAVER program develops knowledge products and conducts objective, practitioner-relevant, operationally oriented assessments and validations on commercially available equipment and systems.

Relevant information will be shared with nationally with federal, state, local, tribal and territorial response agencies. For further details on the SAVER program, visit the SAVER website at https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/saver. SAVER provides information on equipment that falls within the categories listed in the DHS Authorized Equipment List (AEL). The AEL item numbers for the subject products 19MH-00-CONT Containers, Storage.

The target audience for this information are all first responders and their respective purchasing agents. Responses to this RFI must be submitted to NUSTL no later than 4:00 PM EST on April 24, 2024. All technical comments, inquiries, and responses should be directed to Joseph Russo via e-mail at NUSTL@hq.dhs.gov, and all non-technical questions should be directed to the Office of Procurement Operations via email to Linda Woolard, at Linda.Woolard@hq.dhs.gov and John Whipple, at John.Whipple@hq.dhs.gov. II.

OTHER INFORMATION The submitted information will be evaluated for inclusion in SAVER projects and reports. Determination as to an individual product’s suitability will be made by NUSTL based on the objectives of this request. Therefore, requests for feedback should not be made through the System for Award Management (SAM) (https://sam.gov) posting agency. Vendors may be contacted following submission for more detailed product information.

Vendor provided information may be reformatted for publication in SAVER program documents. If a vendor does not respond to additional requests for information, information may be marked as “Not Available” or removed from the SAVER documents.