Industry pressure forces NASA to press pause on SEWP VI

A public letter writing campaign from vendors detailing concerns about the lack of clarity of the SEWP VI solicitation pushed NASA's decision.

by Jason Miller 
@jmillerWFED
August 9, 2024

Increasing pressure from the industry about the lack of clarity of the SEWP VI solicitation has forced NASA to hit a pause on its governmentwide acquisition contract.

Vendors are unhappy that the SEWP VI program office chose not to answer more than 4,500 questions submitted about the solicitation, and with bids due later this month, a letter-writing campaign spurred NASA’s decision.

“There is a lot of ambiguity in this procurement in a number of areas. That lack of clarity is concerning to a lot of people, and it resulted in more than 6,700 questions,” said Robert Turner, president of RTurner Consulting, who is helping companies put together their proposals to bid on SEWP VI. “I have never seen in my career a contract or IDIQ have this many questions. It’s not that the industry is trying to gang up on NASA and flood them with meaningless work, and while I’m sure there are a bunch of duplicative questions and some that the vendor should just go back and read RFP, there are still 4,500 or so questions that need to be answered.”

NASA issued an update late Thursday night on SAM.gov initiating the pause.

“NASA appreciates industry interest in the SEWP VI request for proposal and the submitted questions. We value collaboration, and we strive to ensure a transparent process for our industry partners. In consideration of this, NASA is implementing a strategic pause on the SEWP VI request for proposals,” NASA wrote. “The due date for proposals will be extended at a future date.”

NASA’s decision to put SEWP VI on hold for the time being comes after Turner and some clients sent a letter outlining their concerns about the current solicitation to the SEWP program management office. Additionally, Turner posted the open letter on LinkedIn, garnering the attention of Karla Smith Jackson, NASA’s assistant administrator for procurement and deputy chief acquisition officer.

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