The U.S. AbilityOne Commission is soliciting feedback on a plan to amend its regulations to clarify its authority when it comes to considering different pricing methods in establishing the fair market price for changes to the FMP and additions to the Procurement List as part of efforts to modernize the AbilityOne Program and align it with the needs of federal agency customers.
The proposed changes also intend to better define the parameters for performing competitive allocations among qualified nonprofit agencies and clarify the commission’s procedures and responsibilities to authorize and deauthorize NPAs, according to a notice of proposed rulemaking published Monday in Federal Register.
The suggested revisions seek to integrate the recommendations by a panel in accordance with Section 898 of the fiscal year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.
The commission said the panel’s recommended actions are being introduced in the proposed rulemaking.
These include requiring central nonprofit agencies to consider technical capability, past performance and price when making an NPA allocation decision, establishing policy and business rules for competition and recompetition of the Procurement List within the AbilityOne Program and protecting the jobs of incumbent employees who are blind or have other significant disabilities if an NPA is deauthorized.
Comments on the proposed changes are due May 11.
