SOLICITATION NOTICE
D -- Lobby Disclosure Digital Signature Implementation
- Notice Date
- 3/31/2004
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- United States House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, Office of the Clerk, H-154, The Capitol, Washington, DC, 20515
- ZIP Code
- 20515
- Solicitation Number
- CLK04000224
- Response Due
- 5/4/2004
- Archive Date
- 5/19/2004
- Point of Contact
- V'Anne Tugbang, Special Assistant to the Clerk, Phone (202) 225-7000, Fax (202) 225-5888, - V'Anne Tugbang, Special Assistant to the Clerk, Phone (202) 225-7000, Fax (202) 225-5888,
- E-Mail Address
-
VAnne@mail.house.gov, VAnne@mail.house.gov
- Description
- The Office of the Clerk needs to enhance its existing Lobby Disclosure (LD) system by allowing lobbyists to sign Lobby Disclosure registration forms electronically with a digital signature that is verified using the GSA-Sponsored Certificate Arbitrator Module (CAM) software and submit the forms electronically. The digital signatures will be verified using CAM software installed and maintained locally on a server within the Office of the Clerk's server farm or by CAM software remotely accessed through the GSA-sponsored E-Authentication portal. The Office of the Clerk may decide to use the E-Authentication portal as the primary means of verification and a locally configured CAM as a backup. The Contractor must be prepared to integrate the LD system with a locally installed and maintained CAM or a remotely installed CAM that verifies digital signatures through the E-Authentication portal, or both. In addition, the Office of the Clerk needs to automate the updating of the databases in the LD system electronically with information contained on the submitted forms. The LD system contains two (2) databases: (1) a database containing PDF files representing the electronic forms and (2) Microsoft SQL tables containing information contained on the submitted forms. The records in the Lobby Disclosure Act (LDA) databases must be electronically created or updated with both the PDF files and the information contained on each electronically submitted form. The documents' database needs to be updated with a PDF file for each LD form electronically submitted therefore eliminating the need to scan LD forms that are filed electronically. The SQL database also needs to be updated with the information contained on the forms to eliminate manual data entry of this information. The current system is paper-based, thus requiring handwritten signatures, manual data entry into the LD SQL database, and manual scanning of the paper documents into the LD documents' database. The option to submit paper forms will remain available. Because lobbyists could begin filing their LD forms for the second half of 2004 as early as January 1, 2005, the Contractor awarded this contract must complete this entire effort by Friday, December 17, 2004. The entire effort must include complete user testing and House acceptance. The Office of the Clerk is responsible for receiving and tracking documents submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives under the Lobby Disclosure Act of 1995 (Public law 104-65). This law requires the disclosure of certain information related to lobbying activities and financial information. The Lobby Disclosure Act of 1995 requires lobbyists to register and provide semi-annual lobbying reports to the Clerk's office. The registration form and instructions are available at http://clerk.house.gov/pd/index.php and in Section J of the RFP. The Office of the Clerk's system currently provides forms to be completed electronically using PDF files. Once completed, the forms must be printed and either mailed or delivered in person to the Legislative Resource Center (LRC) within the Office of the Clerk. Within the Office of the Clerk, the LRC serves as the repository for the lobbying forms received by the Clerk's office. It is the responsibility of the LRC to maintain records regarding these filings, identify and notify filers of their responsibilities, track filers' submissions, and make the submissions available for onsite public viewing. In this regard, the LRC uses electronic means for making LD records available for viewing by the public. The submitted documents are scanned as PDF files and the public can search the SQL database for metadata queries at public workstations in the Cannon House Office Building, Room B-106. The U.S. House of Representatives needs to integrate the use of digital signatures and electronic submission of the required registration forms with the existing Lobby Disclosure (LD) system. The U.S. House of Representatives requires Contractor support to enhance existing PDF forms to include the capability of signing the forms with a digital signature that is verified using the GSA-sponsored CAM, establish a mechanism for the submission of the forms electronically, further enhance field validation within the PDF form, refine LD system requirements, create a design document for LD system enhancements, and integrate the electronically-submitted forms and information derived from those forms into the current LD system. Integration of the electronically-submitted forms means that PDF renditions of the form for each electronic filer must be added to the document database of the LD system. Integration of the information derived from the forms means that the data entered into the form must be captured and stored in the LD SQL database. There is additional data entered into the electronic form that is not currently captured in the LD database. The additional fields must be added to the LD SQL database as part of this effort. The Contractor will also need to provide user and technical documentation for all work performed and also provide training to House personnel (LRC Records and Registration staff for user training and LCS technical staff for technical training). The user training must include how to use the system. The technical training must include complete code reviews and how to support the new functionality. The Contractor must become familiar with the current Lobby Disclosure system through review of the associated legislation (Public Law 104-65) as well as a review of the associated forms and documents (Appendices). Review of House documentation includes but is not limited to the following: * Public Law 104-65 (Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995). * Lobbying Registration form (LD-1). * Lobbying Report form (LD-2). * Report on Alternative Methods for Authenticated Electronic Submission of the Lobby Disclosure Forms * Report on Using Digital Signature with Outsourced Certificates for Submitting Lobby Disclosure Forms. A review of the House Inspector General's report entitled Legislative Information Systems Evaluation (Report No. 99-CLK-02) may also be helpful. This report can be found at http://www.house.gov/IG/99clk02/report.htm. The House will provide access to technical and functional legislative staff for answering questions on this project. All work (including reviews, evaluations, and analyses) must be guided by established Federal and private industry criteria. All written work products shall utilize proper business grammar and formatting techniques. The design for LD enhancements must use a risk-oriented approach and must ensure that the recommendations meet the needs and the standards of the House in the most efficient, effective, and economical manner. This contract will consist of two (2) tasks. Task 1 will include integrating the use of digital signatures that are verified using the GSA-sponsored CAM Software, implementation of the capability to submit electronic LD forms with digital signatures and agreed upon field validation, and simultaneously creating a design document that describes and refines LD system requirements including: (1) additional validation of the existing LD form fields, (2) processes for the acceptance and verification of the authenticity of the submitted forms, (3) all necessary implementation requirements for the LD system to store the electronically submitted forms and the data extracted from those forms. Task 2 will consist of implementing the processes defined within the design document from Task 1. The Contractor shall discuss and clarify task order requirements and deliverables, and the Contractor must present a work plan at a kick-off meeting for this Contract. C.1 Task 1 - Refinement of Requirements, Defining Data Capture Fields, Design Document, addition of Digital Signature, and Implementation of Electronic Submission. C.1.1 Refinement of Requirements, Defining Data Capture Fields, and Design Document. The Contractor will become familiar with the current House Lobby Disclosure system, applicable laws, and the current procedures used by reviewing the system, House documentation of the system, and interviewing House personnel. The Contractor will specifically work with House personnel from LRC to determine the validation needed to be added to the LD PDF forms and the information to be captured from the electronically submitted forms. The Contractor will inventory the existing network infrastructure that exists within the Office of the Clerk's Server Farm and determine if the existing configuration (hardware and software) associated with the current LD system is sufficient to handle the additional requirements. Staff personnel from Legislative Computer Systems (LCS) within the Office of the Clerk will be available to answer questions about current and future systems architecture. If the current LD system is lacking the needed capacity, the Contractor will advise the House as to what additional hardware and software needs will be required and the Office of the Clerk will acquire the additional resources. The Contractor may be asked to assist with the installation of some of the recommended products. The data capture and updating of the LD system and databases will not be implemented during this task. However, the Contractor will provide a design document outlining how they will integrate all of the agreed upon enhancements into the existing LD system. The design document must include the methodology, actions, and timeline necessary to enhance the LD system with all of the following mandatory requirements: * Validation of the LD forms - The validation agreed upon with LRC. * Digital Signature - Digital Signature must be included on the LD forms. * Electronic Submission - The ability to electronically submit verifiable LD forms in a secure and nonrepudiated manner. * Digital Signature Verification - The digital signature must provide the following mandatory requirements: * Data confidentiality in transit - Protect data from disclosure during the submission process. * Data integrity in transit - do not allow data to be changed during submission without detection. * Technical nonrepudiation - Use cryptographic methods to demonstrate that a submission was signed by a unique private key associated with a specific person or process. * Updating the LD documents database - The LD documents database must be electronically updated (in PDF format) upon receipt of LD forms with a verified digital signature, therefore eliminating the need to manually scan the documents. * Updating the LD SQL database - The LD SQL database must be electronically updated with the information that is currently being captured in the existing system upon receipt of LD forms that contain a verified digital signature, therefore eliminating the need to manually enter the information submitted electronically. * Capture of additional information from the LD forms - There is additional data entered into the electronic form that is not currently captured in the LD SQL database. The additional fields will need to be added to the LD SQL database as part of this effort and those fields will need to be harvested from the LD forms that contain a verified digital signature. The House must approve the final design document before the Contractor begins Task 2. C.1.2 Modification of Electronic Lobby Disclosure Forms to Include Digital Signature, Form Validation, and Electronic Submission. The Contractor will modify the existing House LD PDF forms to allow the addition of a digital signature to include the appropriate verification/validation using the GSA-sponsored CAM software. In addition, the LD PDF forms must be modified to include the validation defined and agreed to between the House staff (LRC) and the Contractor per the design document. At the conclusion of this task, the mechanism to enable lobbyists wishing to file LD forms electronically with the House must be installed, tested, and fully implemented. The process enabling lobbyists to file electronically must include the following mandatory requirements: * Digital signature - All LD forms filed electronically must be signed with a digital signature verified using the GSA-sponsored CAM software. * Electronic form submission capability - Provide a method for lobbyists to electronically submit LD forms. * Validation of the LD forms - The LD forms must include the validation specified and agreed to during the requirements refinement portion of this task. C.2 Task 2 - Implementation of Data Capture, Updating of Databases, Documentation, User Acceptance Testing, and Training. C.2.1 Data Capture and Updating of Databases. Based upon the approved design document, the Contractor will modify the LD system to integrate the electronically-submitted forms and information derived from those forms into the current LD system. Integration of the electronically-submitted forms means that PDF renditions of the form for each electronic filer must be added to the documents' database of the LD system. Integration of the information derived from the forms means that the data entered into the form must be captured and stored in the LD SQL database. There is additional data entered into the electronic form that is not currently captured in the LD database. The additional fields must be added to the LD SQL database as part of this effort and these fields must be populated by the data extracted from the electronic forms that have verified digital signatures. The data capturing enhancements will include the following: * Updating the LD documents database - The LD documents database must be electronically updated (in PDF format) upon submission, verification, and acceptance of the electronically submitted LD forms, therefore eliminating the need to scan electronically submitted PDF forms. * Updating the LD SQL database - Upon submission, verification, and acceptance of the electronically submitted LD forms, the LD SQL database must be electronically updated with the information that is currently being captured in the existing system, therefore eliminating the need to manually enter the information submitted electronically. * Capture of additional information from the LD forms - There is additional data entered into the electronic form that is not currently captured in the LD database. The additional fields will need to be added to the LD SQL database as part of this effort. C.2.2 User Documentation/ Training of House Support Staff/ User Acceptance Testing. The Contractor will provide the LRC Records and Registration staff with a manual describing the enhanced features of the LD system and step by step operational instructions on how to implement the new features. The Contractor shall train the House LRC Records and Registration staff in the newly created electronic submission process. This will familiarize Records and Registration staff with the use of digital signatures and electronic forms submissions. After training, their level of proficiency needs to be at a level to answer questions related to the electronic LD forms submission process. The Records and Registration staff must also be capable of instructing registrants on how to contact a designated CA for certificate issuance. In addition, the Contractor will provide the Records and Registration staff with a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to help them respond to inquiries once the system is implemented. A test environment will be created to fully test the new features of the enhanced system. The Contractor will provide information to the LCS staff describing what resources (hardware/software) are needed to create the test environment. If additional resources are needed, LCS will secure and install the needed resources. The Contractor will work with LCS staff to create the test environment. The Contractor needs to provide the ability to enable the House to create test forms for submission and fully process the forms within the test environment. During this task, the Records and Registration staff will perform detailed testing of the newly enhanced system in the test environment. Test scripts and scenarios will be provided by the Contractor. The Contractor will also provide technical documentation describing the new features and also provide training to House LCS technical staff. The technical training must include complete code reviews and how to support the new functionality. For a complete copy of the Request for Proposal (RFP) CLK04000224 go to: http://clerk.house.gov/index.html
- Place of Performance
- Address: U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
- Zip Code: 20515
- Country: U.S.A.
- Zip Code: 20515
- Record
- SN00557788-W 20040402/040331212656 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
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