The Lower Colorado Region's Acquisition and Assistance Group provides procurement, financial assistance, and Government purchase card support for Reclamation offices in Arizona, southern Nevada and Southern California. Program areas and their contacts include:

Acquisitions
Reclamation advertises and issues all acquisitions greater than $25,000 (except those reserved for the Small Business Administration's 8(a) Program) through FedBizOpps, the government-wide point of entry for obtaining solicitation documents. Department of the Interior solicitations and award notifications can be viewed, or bid quotes submitted electronically, by registering at the National Business Center's Electronic Commerce site. Companies interested in participating must be registered in the Central Contractor Registration database to be considered for award of any Federal contract and must maintain a current registration through the life of the contract.

Other acquisition and assistance programs are also available to help companies do business with Reclamation:

Through simplified acquisitions procedures, Reclamation procures supplies and services, including those related to construction and research and development, which do not exceed $100,000 in value. Commercial items valued up to $5 million are also procured through this process.

Formal acquisitions procedures - sealed bidding and contract by negotiation - are followed to procure supplies and services, including construction and research and development, with values exceeding $100,000. Additionally, supplies and services valued at less than $100,000 are procured through these formal procedures if the contract type is other than firm-fixed price or firm-fixed price with economic price adjustment.

Reclamation strongly encourages the submission of unsolicited proposals for unique and innovative ideas that support the agency's mission. For more information on how to submit an unsolicited proposal, refer to Reclamation's Unsolicited Proposals Handbook.

Interagency Acquisitions
For some situations, Reclamation finds that interagency acquisitions between government agencies provide cost- and time-savings benefits. The Interagency Agreement Guide provides additional information about these procedures.

Grants and Cooperative Agreements
Some types of financial assistance are available through the grants and cooperative agreements program. Grants.gov allows organizations to electronically find and apply for competitive grant opportunities and is the single access point for over 900 programs offered by 26 Federal grant-making agencies. Reclamation's Financial Assistance Handbook provides additional information.

Business Utilization and Development
The Business Utilization and Development program provides assistance on Reclamation's contracting opportunities and guidance with the Federal procurement process to small businesses (veteran-owned, service disabled veteran-owned, historically underutilized (HUBZone), disadvantaged, and women-owned).

Additional Information
The forms required for solicitations, contracts, grants and agreements vary based on circumstances. A complete collection of Standard and Optional Forms is available at the General Services Administration site. Use of these documents is required to do business with the Lower Colorado Region.

Additionally, regulations associated with federal agency acquisitions can be found on the General Services Administration, Department of the Interior and Reclamation acquisition websites.