[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1386 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

  1st Session
                                S. 1386

     To provide for soft-metric conversion, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            November 2, 1995

 Mr. Burns (for himself and Mr. Shelby) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Governmental 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To provide for soft-metric conversion, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Small Business Metrification 
Amendments of 1995''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) section 3 of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 (15 
        U.S.C. 205a)--
                    (A) sets forth the policy of the United States to 
                convert to the metric system; and
                    (B) provides that each Federal agency use the 
                metric system of measurement in its procurements, 
                grants, and other business-related activities, except 
                to the extent that use is impractical or is likely to 
                cause significant inefficiencies or loss of markets to 
                United States firms, such as when foreign competitors 
                are producing competing products in nonmetric units;
            (2) as of the date of enactment of this Act, Federal 
        construction contracting officers are requiring some industries 
        to implement a hard-metric conversion, which uses metric 
        dimensions, but also requires retooling and other substantial 
        capitalization costs and other expensive production changes to 
        physically change the size of a product, without regard to 
        whether that method is--
                    (A) impractical; or
                    (B) likely to cause significant inefficiencies or a 
                loss of markets to United States firms;
            (3) as of the date of enactment of this Act, contracting 
        officers of many Federal agencies are requiring some industries 
        to use the hard-metric method of conversion, only for the 
        additional purpose of achieving rounded numbers;
            (4) a small number of domestic industries that manufacture 
        basic construction products would suffer great upheaval by 
        being forced to either--
                    (A) convert to hard-metric production; or
                    (B) be foreclosed from effectively bidding on 
                federally owned or assisted projects;
            (5) the huge capitalization costs and manufacturing 
        problems caused by hard-metric conversion could force many 
        small businesses out of the market for contracts with the 
        Federal Government;
            (6) hard-metric conversion could--
                    (A) place domestic producers at a competitive 
                disadvantage with respect to foreign producers;
                    (B) dramatically reduce--
                            (i) the number of companies that may 
                        compete for contracts with the Federal 
                        Government; and
                            (ii) competition for bids; and
                    (C) force manufacturers to maintain double 
                inventories of similar but incompatible products;
            (7) as a result of the higher costs of products produced as 
        a result of hard-metric conversion, the Federal Government is 
        often required to pay what is known as a metric premium to 
        procure hard-metric products;
            (8) the taxpayers of the United States oppose paying a 
        metric premium for hard-metric conversion at a time when budget 
        constraints are causing cutbacks in social services programs 
        with a higher priority;
            (9) soft-metric conversion is less costly and less 
        intrusive than hard-metric conversion, as the product remains 
        the same size over the course of the conversion, but is 
        expressed in metric dimensions; and
            (10) in many cases, because the production of a product 
        using a soft-metric conversion uses metric units without a 
        federally mandated change in the size or production of that 
        product, metric conversion may be achieved without causing 
        excessive economic upheaval with respect to domestic industries 
        and small businesses.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    Section 4 of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 (15 U.S.C. 205c) is 
amended--
            (1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (3);
            (2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (4); and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
            ``(5) `hard-metric product' means a material or product (or 
        type of product) that is produced as a result of a hard-metric 
        conversion;
            ``(6) `hard-metric conversion' means a conversion that 
        requires, in addition to the expression of the dimensions of a 
        product under the metric system of measurement, a physical 
        change in the size of that product relative to the size of that 
        product established under existing production practices or 
        capabilities of the appropriate industry;
            ``(7) `industry' has the meaning provided that term by the 
        Board;
            ``(8) `soft-metric product' means a material or product (or 
        type of product) that is produced as a result of a soft-metric 
        conversion;
            ``(9) `soft-metric conversion' means a conversion that is 
        based on the expression of the dimension of a product under the 
        metric system of measurement without changing the physical size 
        of the product relative to the size of that product established 
        under existing production practices or capabilities of the 
        appropriate industry; and
            ``(10) `small business' has the meaning provided that term 
        by the Board.''.

SEC. 4. METRIC CONVERSION.

    Section 12 of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 (15 U.S.C. 205j-1) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new subsections:
    ``(c) Beginning on the date of enactment of this subsection, no 
agency of the Federal Government may--
            ``(1) develop, implement, or continue the use of 
        construction design or procurement guidelines to carry out the 
        policy set forth in paragraph (2) of section 3 that require the 
        use of a hard-metric conversion or a hard-metric product; or
            ``(2) establish or apply any bidding requirement or 
        preference with respect to any federally assisted construction 
        contract that mandates the use of a hard-metric product, if--
                    ``(A) the production of a soft-metric product is 
                technologically feasible; and
                    ``(B) the appropriate representative (as determined 
                by the head of the Federal agency involved pursuant to 
                subsection (d)) of the industry that manufactures the 
                product or type of product that would otherwise be 
                subject to a hard-metric conversion certifies that--
                            ``(i)(I) that product or type of product is 
                        not readily available as a hard-metric product 
                        from 50 percent or more of the domestic 
                        manufacturers in the United States; or
                            ``(II) a hard-metric product does not 
                        constitute 50 percent or more of the total 
                        production of that product or type of product 
                        by that industry;
                            ``(ii) a hard-metric conversion would 
                        require manufacturers that are small businesses 
                        that produce that product or type of product to 
                        incur capital outlays in an amount greater than 
                        $25,000 per manufacturer to invest in new 
                        equipment to produce a hard-metric product that 
                        would otherwise be required to carry out that 
                        federally assisted construction contract; and
                            ``(iii)(I) based on the economic situation 
                        and customs of the industry, any potential 
                        offsetting trade benefits that could be 
                        achieved by that industry by carrying out a 
                        hard-metric conversion to produce that product 
                        or type of products would be negligible;
                            ``(II) hard-metric conversion would--
                                    ``(aa) substantially reduce 
                                competition for federally assisted 
                                projects; or
                                    ``(bb) increase the per unit cost 
                                of that product that taxpayers would 
                                pay; or
                            ``(III) hard-metric conversion would create 
                        a special hardship with respect to domestic 
                        manufacturers that are small businesses by 
                        placing those domestic manufacturers at a 
                        competitive disadvantage with respect to 
                        foreign competitors.
    ``(d)(1) The head of each agency of the Federal Government shall 
establish a list of appropriate representatives of an industry that may 
make a certification under subsection (c)(2)(B)(i). The agency head 
shall update that list on an annual basis. That list shall include any 
appropriate professional or trade association that is recognized as 
representing that industry.
    ``(2) At the time that a recognized representative of industry 
submits a certification under subsection (c)(2)(B)(i), that 
representative shall include a list of manufacturers of the product 
that is the subject of the certification that have made commitments to 
providing a soft-metric product in a sufficient quantity and with 
sufficient selections to ensure, with respect to that product, 
competitive unit pricing and ready availability.''.
                                 <all>