Government Affairs and Advocacy

Dear members:

As many of you are already aware, the GSA has experienced significant delays in processing the SAM-UEI identifier requests since the April roll-out. My understanding is that GSA has received some 30,000 UEI requests since initial roll-out in April- numbers far exceeding expectation or capacity to process. 

It is my understanding that there is a Federal agency working group that has gathered to identify and triage issues and map out the best path forward with GSA. USAID sits on the working group endeavoring to resolve the delays. They are also working closely with the Federal Service Desk (FSD) to escalate and "quickly" get issues resolved when there are urgent/life-saving needs involved.

USAID encourages Humentum members with an urgent UEI-related need to submit the UEI request to the FSD, get a ticket number, and then send that ticket number to the USAID Industry Liaison team at IndustryLiaison@usaid.gov, with any background information on the urgency of the request. USAID will then elevate the request to more quickly get it addressed.

I will continue to update folks in this space. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly if/as related or new issues arise. 

Best,
Cynthia

Dear all: I have continued to engage with USG on the UEI delays.

Request for information: If you know potential new USAID partners or local entities have been precluded from applying for a solicitation because they have not timely received their UEI due to the GSA backlog, or a similar negative impact, kindly share those experiences with me either in this thread or via email (cynthia.smith@humentum.org). In the meantime, I will share what USAID/M/OAA has communicated to me regarding the impact the UEI delay is having on solicitations, etc...

"We've had a number of conversations with our workforce regarding the UEI issues and the impact it is having on our partners. Many COs/AOs are elevating specific requests to our team working with GSA on the UEI issues and a few have delayed making awards while we have worked through the UEI issues."

Thank you,
Cynthia