• The Department of Energy awarded a $10,000 contract to Cloud Nine Productions, based in New York City, for an original play called “The Dreamer,” written specifically for the department’s Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative event. The Department of Energy’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity is hosting the event on Jan. 27.
• One day before President Trump’s inauguration, the Office of Personnel Management awarded two contracts to help with background investigations of new federal personnel, worth more than $225 million. Inquiries, Inc. won a $108 million contract to help manage a central records unit for background checks. Primus Solutions was awarded a $117.5 million contract to “provide investigative support services for background investigations.” The search for contractors had been in the works since early 2016.
{mosads}• The Defense Department spent $304 million on Tomahawk Block IV missiles, made by Raytheon Missile Systems. The Naval Air Systems Command, within the Department of the Navy, purchased 13 of the long-range missiles, which have evolved to contain the ability to be re-targeted during flight and are installed with a two-way data link that can send back images of a target and hover above it until ordered to strike, among other features.
• The French landscaping company Serdeco won a $579,000 contract from the State Department to provide gardening services to the United States Mission in France, including embassy compounds. “Maintenance and appearance of the grass, shrubbery, garden areas, trees, and related landscape elements of the U.S. Post and properties are an important part of the representational responsibilities of the U.S. mission,” the contract’s statement of work says.
• The Environmental Protection Agency contracted with Y&S Technologies to obtain televisions and projectors. The contract, worth $48,000, is to provide nine 65-inch televisions, five 80-inch televisions and five smaller televisions, in addition to nine projectors, as part of a “conference rooms upgrade.”
Contract information compiled from General Services Administration data and government press releases. Send announcements about government contracts to mwilson@digital-staging.thehill.com.