Recovery Act solicitations hit the street

Federal agencies are wasting no time advertising new business opportunities created under the economic stimulus package, which became law last Tuesday.

Here is what Federal Times has found on FedBizOpps so far:

• On Feb. 18, the day after President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Navy issued a solicitation for a $400 million small business construction contract. This multiple award contract will be awarded to five small businesses. The businesses will be hired to perform new construction, repair, demolition and renovation projects at Navy facilities worldwide. Those projects will be funded through stimulus package appropriations.
• On Feb. 19, the Air Force issued its own solicitation for HUBZone-certified small businesses that can replace electrical lines. The project is valued anywhere from $1 million and $5 million and is funded under the recovery act. 
• The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a division of the National Institutes of Health, issued its own stimulus-related solicitation on Feb. 20. That stimulus-funded opportunity calls on researchers to submit proposals about new approaches to make “quantum improvements” in treating alcoholism.
• The Agriculture Department technically doesn’t have any projects posted yet, but that hasn’t stopped it from gathering more information in anticipation of Forest Service projects funded by the stimulus package.  On Feb. 18, the Forest Service Lake States Acquisition Team issued a notice asking for updated information on architecture and engineering contractors in Wisconsin and Michigan.

The Office of Management and Budget has ordered agencies to post all stimulus-related opportunities on FedBizOpps, whether they’re for work that will be awarded under new contracts or existing contracts, such as the General Services Administration Multiple Award Schedules. Stimulus projects must be tagged “Recovery” for easy searching, although it appears from the solicitation notices above, some agencies are still getting used to that idea.