[Protest of NIH Exclusion of Proposal From Competitive Range]

A firm protested the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) exclusion of its bid from the competitive range, contending that: (1) the decision was arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion; and (2) NIH was predisposed to accept only bids from companies with experience in operating the NIH facility. GAO held that NIH: (1) reasonably excluded the protester's bid, which was not adequate in all the evaluation areas and would require significant revisions to make it acceptable; and (2) was not required to equalize advantages due to prior experience. Accordingly, the protest was denied.