[Request for Reconsideration]

A firm requested reconsideration of a prior decision in which GAO sustained a protest against a Defense Supply Service (DSS) contract awarded to it for personnel, facilities, and equipment. The original protest was made because DSS did not afford equal evaluation treatment to research associates in the requester's and the protester's proposals. The question in both the original protest and the awardee's request for reconsideration centered around the definition of "professional" in the solicitation and the associated breakout of staff work hours. GAO held that the requester and DSS provided no information which was not part of the record in the prior decision; instead, the request for reconsideration was largely an objection to the prior decision and an effort to reargue points which GAO had already considered. The record showed that DSS refined the definition in the solicitation in such a way that it could have had a material impact on the competition for award. Accordingly, the decision was affirmed.