Question: How can a private contracting company maintain cleared positions to work with the US Government in development of a contract for possible contingency operations.
Not sure I fully understand the question but the government can award a contract with no money in it. That is, they award a contract that allows a company to bid on tasks within that contract that can later be awarded very quickly. Those tasks are funded when they are actually started, and not when the contract is first awarded.
In this way, the company would have a contract that they could use to get people cleared even though there may not be any actual work being performed. These are sometimes called a “task order” or “IDIQ” cant remember what that stands for but google will remember.