Office of Records That Should Not Exist

Archival Paper Capable of Retaining Superseded Text

Solicitation HAEB-26-R-0044 ACTIVE SOLICITATION CAP Rev. 12.4

Document type

solicitation

Issuing office

Office of Records That Should Not Exist

Effective

Upon issuance, and at the date-of-delivery stated in Section 5

Public impact

Level 3, Administrative

Published

July 20, 2026

1. Requirement

40,000 sheets archival paper capable of retaining superseded text.

Full and open competition. One award anticipated. Firm fixed price.

2. Background

The Bureau issues records whose text is corrected after publication. When a correction is issued, the current text supersedes the prior text, and the prior text remains subject to a retention schedule.

Stock currently held does not retain the prior text once the current text is applied. The Bureau therefore creates a second record for each correction, which creates a second retention obligation, which has produced 61 percent of the Bureau’s paper consumption and 100 percent of its shelving requests.

The Blue Binder, which holds the Current Approved Past during a digital continuity interruption, is maintained on stock procured under a prior award. That stock carries text applied in more than one century in more than one ink, all of it legible. The Bureau has not identified the supplier.

This solicitation replaces that stock.

3. Technical specification

The sheet shall:

1. Display the text applied to it.
2. When that text is superseded, continue to display the superseded text legibly, alongside the current text, without overprinting, marginal annotation, adhesive layer, or physical evidence that the superseded text was ever applied.
3. Not display text that has not yet been applied. Sheets returning text before application will be rejected at inspection.
4. Retain superseded text without action by the custodian, including without a decision by the custodian.
5. Remain visually indistinguishable from every other sheet in the lot, so that inventory can be conducted by count.
6. Maintain legibility of superseded text for not less than 300 years, measured from the earliest date at which the sheet may be inspected.

The mechanism by which retention occurs shall not be described in the offeror’s proposal. Proposals that describe the mechanism will be found nonresponsive.

4. Period compatibility

1. No component may be traceable to a manufacturing process not in general use before 1908.
2. Stock shall be lignin free and alkaline buffered to the Bureau’s permanence standard.
3. Optical brightening agents are prohibited.
4. Any watermark shall not name a year.
5. Sheets shall be acceptable to a custodian at the date-of-delivery without explanation. The contractor may not offer an explanation.

Offerors are reminded that a requirement is not waived by being difficult to satisfy simultaneously.

5. Delivery date and date-of-delivery

Delivery date: March 2, 2027.

Date-of-delivery: 1908.

Both dates are firm. Delivery at one date and not the other will be treated as nonperformance at the date not delivered. The Bureau does not recognize partial performance across dates, because performance is recorded once.

Transportation to the date-of-delivery is not government furnished.

6. Inspection

Inspection at destination, at the date-of-delivery, by the custodian of record, who signs the receiving report as Employee 000.

Sheets are inspected before the text they will retain is applied. Sheets found to already retain text are accepted.

A copy of the signed receiving report will be furnished to the contractor at the delivery date stated in Section 5. Contractors are advised that the receiving report will be dated earlier than the proposal.

7. Government-furnished information

None.

The condition under which retention occurs was established by the Bureau. It is not releasable, and it will not be described in an amendment. Offerors are advised not to base their design on it.

The Bureau holds samples of stock exhibiting the required behavior. The samples are records and are therefore unavailable under Directive 9.9.

8. Security

1. Personnel performing inspection at the date-of-delivery shall hold a current nonlocal historical duty authorization under Directive 4.1. The Bureau does not travel, and neither does the contractor.
2. Contractor personnel shall not discuss this requirement within the period of performance, including with persons located in that period.
3. Proposals determined to have been received before submission are stored under Directive 9.9 and are evaluated in the order received.
4. No proposal may cite the Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908. The Bureau cites it.

9. Past performance

Offerors shall submit three references for prior deliveries of paper retaining superseded text.

Offerors with no such prior deliveries may submit references for deliveries that have not yet occurred. These will be evaluated as pending and scored.

One prior award was made against this requirement, in 1963. The resulting stock remains in service and continues to perform. The contract file cannot be located. The absence has been reviewed and closed.

10. Questions

Questions are due 10 days before the issuance of this solicitation. Questions received after that time are retained.

Answers will be published as an amendment. An amendment supersedes the text it replaces. The superseded text will remain available on the stock described in Section 3, once that stock has been delivered.

11. Award

Award will be made to the responsible offeror whose proposal is most advantageous to the Government, technical capability and past performance considered, price secondary.

The Bureau reserves the right to award without discussions, to make no award, and to have awarded.

Offerors are reminded that the Government’s requirement is for retention, not for preservation. The distinction is not negotiable.