[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 26 (Friday, February 7, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5796-5797]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-3111]
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COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR SEVERELY DISABLED
Procurement List; Addition
AGENCY: Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely
Disabled.
ACTION: Addition to the procurement list.
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SUMMARY: This action adds to the Procurement List a commodity to be
furnished by nonprofit agencies employing persons who are blind or have
other severe disabilities.
EFFECTIVE DATE: March 10, 1997.
ADDRESSES: Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely
Disabled, Crystal Square 3, Suite 403, 1735 Jefferson Davis Highway,
Arlington, Virginia 22202-3461.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Milkman (703) 603-7740.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On October 25, 1996, the Committee for
Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled published
notice (61 F.R. 55268) of proposed addition to the Procurement List.
Comments were received from both current contractors for the cord and
from a small disadvantaged business which is in the industry. One of
the current contractors indicated that it supplies a substantial amount
of the cord to the Government, but it also supplies many other cords to
nonprofit agencies participating in the Committee's Javits-Wagner-O'Day
(JWOD) Program, so it does not oppose the addition of this cord to the
Procurement List. The small disadvantaged business indicated that it
had asked for the cord to be set aside for the Small Business
Administration's 8(a) Program, in which it participates, rather than
the JWOD Program, but the Government contracting activity has informed
the Committee that the cord is not involved in the 8(a) Program.
The other current contractor indicated that it is a small business
and the actual manufacture of the cord is done by a division which
would be severely impacted by the addition of the cord to the
Procurement List as the company might discontinue the division because
of the loss of sales. If this happened, the Government would lose one
of a small number of manufacturers of this cord. The contractor also
questioned the ability of people who are blind to perform the
operations necessary to manufacture the cord to Government
specifications. The contractor also expressed its understanding that
the nonprofit agency would merely serve as a warehouse for manufactured
cord from another supplier, and questioned how the nonprofit agency
would meet the Committee's statutory direct labor requirement.
The nonprofit agency will not be making the cord, so the concerns
over the ability of people who are blind to perform cordmaking
operations are not relevant to the Committee's decision. The nonprofit
agency will, however, be doing far more than warehousing the cord. It
will receive bulk shipments of the cord and wind the required amount on
spools, label and wrap the spools and package them for shipment, as
well as perform warehousing and shipping functions. These activities
create considerable work for people who are blind, as opposed to the
cord manufacturing operations which are largely machine operations.
The contractor interprets the statutory direct labor requirement as
requiring that at least 75 percent of the total direct labor required
to manufacture the cord must be done by people who are-3-blind. The
Committee's interpretation, which has been upheld by a court decision,
HLI Lordship Industries, Inc. v. Committee for Purchase From the Blind
and Other Severely Handicapped, 615 F. Supp. 970, 975 (E.D. Va. 1985),
is that the requirement applies to the direct labor done by the
nonprofit agency. In this case, the nonprofit agency has indicated that
all of the direct labor, and some of the indirect labor, will be
performed by people who are blind.
The Committee's rationale for looking to a total corporate entity
as the current contractor for impact analysis rather than an individual
division that is performing the contract is that the corporation has
the ability to shift its assets among divisions and thus mitigate the
impact of a Procurement List addition on a specific division. In a
supplemental comment, this contractor challenged the application of
this rationale in the case of a small business like itself and again
raised the possibility that it might have to close its cord division if
it did not have Government sales of the cord along with its own cord
demands for the parachutes the corporation produces.
Nonprofit agencies participating in the JWOD Program are required
by Committee regulation to seek broad competition for components used
in commodities furnished to the Government. 41 CFR 51-4.4(a). Nonprofit
agencies are further required to maximize their subcontracting for
components with other nonprofit agencies and small businesses such as
this contractor. 41 CFR 51-4.4(b). In this case, the nonprofit agency
has been instructed to assure that it will continue to seek competition
between existing cord suppliers, including this contractor.
Accordingly, the contractor will continue to have the opportunity to
sell its cord to the Government through the nonprofit agency, which
should mitigate the possibility of closing its cordmaking division and
depriving the Government of a source of supply for this cord.
After consideration of the material presented to it concerning
capability of qualified nonprofit agencies to provide the commodity and
impact of the addition on the current or most recent contractors, the
Committee has determined that the commodity listed below are suitable
for procurement by the Federal Government under 41 U.S.C. 46-48c and 41
CFR 51-2.4.
I certify that the following action will not have a significant
impact on a substantial number of small entities. The major factors
considered for this certification were:
1. The action will not result in any additional reporting,
recordkeeping or other compliance requirements for small entities other
than the small organizations that will furnish the commodity to the
Government.
2. The action will not have a severe economic impact on current
contractors for the commodity.
3. The action will result in authorizing small entities to furnish
the commodity to the Government.
4. There are no known regulatory alternatives which would
accomplish the objectives of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act (41 U.S.C. 46-
48c) in connection with the commodity proposed for addition to the
Procurement List.
[[Page 5797]]
Accordingly, the following commodity is hereby added to the
Procurement List:
Cord, Nylon
4020-00-240-2146
This action does not affect current contracts awarded prior to the
effective date of this addition or options that may be exercised under
those contracts.
Beverly L. Milkman,
Executive Director.
[FR Doc. 97-3111 Filed 2-6-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6353-01-P
