RFP-797-FSS-99-0025: 65IIA Medical Equipment & Supplies

Watch out for

• Schedule listing does not guarantee sales. Winning a schedule contract only lets agencies order from you if they choose to; you still have to market to VA and other buyers. This solicitation is issued to establish contracts which may be used on a nonmandatory basis by eligible users
• Nationwide delivery coverage required. A small business must be able to ship to every U.S. region and territory listed, with F.O.B. destination pricing for the 48 states and DC. Offerors who cannot provide the required geographic coverage will not be considered for award.
• Financial and responsibility review for new offers. VA now wants financial statements and evidence of resources, so a young or thinly capitalized company may struggle to qualify. Responsibility Evaluation document that should be completed with options and new offers.
• Conflicting submission instructions. Amendment 0001 text gives one email address but its checklist and the original Vendor Response checklist give another (and the original says wet signatures only), so confirm the current rules with the contracting office before sending. Submit all offer documents to vafssoffers@va.gov.
• Strict signature and file rules. An SF 1449 signed too early or in the wrong format can get the whole proposal returned unread. Failure to comply with this date restriction will result in your proposal being returned to you without further consideration.
• Contract sales criteria and quarterly fee reporting. The table of contents lists a Contract Sales Criteria clause and you must report sales and pay a 0.5% Industrial Funding Fee within 30 days after each quarter, so low sales or late reports can cause problems. The IFF fee for this schedule equals 0.5% (one half of one percent) of the total quarterly sales reported.
• Notice deadline does not match the solicitation. SAM.gov shows 2026-12-31, but the solicitation itself says there is no due date, so confirm how that date applies. DUE DATE: None (open and continuous)
• New compliance clause on DEI activities. Amendment 0008 adds a clause that lets VA cancel, terminate or suspend the contract for noncompliance, and it must be passed to subcontractors. The Contractor will not engage in any racially discriminatory DEI activities;
• Most of the key documents were not readable. Only the start and end of the main solicitation (about 17,000 of 571,000 characters) and Vendor Response, plus all price spreadsheets and wage determinations, were read, so the SIN list, price rules and evaluation text are missing from this brief.