[Protest of EPA Contract Award for Publication Distribution Services]

A firm protested an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contract award for publication distribution services, contending that EPA: (1) unreasonably evaluated its bid; (2) improperly eliminated its bid from the competitive range; and (3) should have issued the solicitation under the Small Business Administration's section 8(a) program. GAO held that: (1) EPA reasonably evaluated the protester's bid in accordance with the solicitation's evaluation criteria; (2) EPA properly eliminated the protester's bid from the competitive range, since it needed substantial revision to be made technically acceptable; and (3) the protester untimely filed after bid opening its protest of EPA failure to set the solicitation aside for small businesses. Accordingly, the protest was denied.