[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 174 (Friday, September 6, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Page 47111]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-22776]


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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: October 7, 1996.

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 April 26, 1996, the Committee for 
Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled published 
notice (61 FR 18571) of proposed addition to the Procurement List. 
Comments were received from the current contractor for this aircraft 
safety belt. The contractor indicated that its business is exclusively 
in military specification items, either as a contractor for the 
Department of Defense (DoD) or as a supplier to other DoD contractors. 
The contractor claimed that the Committee's actions in the past have 
generally served to injure or seriously impede the progress of small 
manufacturers like itself. The contractor also claimed that the 
Committee's practice of taking items from a family of similar products 
produced by small manufacturers frustrates the investment strategies 
which lead small businesses to offer families of products because they 
can use components interchangeably to provide cost-effective products 
at lower prices. The contractor stated that the Committee's actions in 
adding aircraft safety belts to the Procurement List in 1983 and 1987 
have cost the contractor millions of dollars in sales volume. As a 
result, the contractor considers the Committee's program to be its most 
significant competitor and the most significant impediment the 
contractor faces in its attempt to grow from a small to a mid-size 
business.
    It is true that there could be some cost savings realized by a 
contractor by purchasing larger quantities of components. However, 
there is no requirement for a contractor to pass these savings to the 
Government in the form of lower prices for the product being procured. 
Moreover, the contracting activity did not aggregate the proposed item 
with other family items in an effort to obtain lower prices. 
Consequently, the Committee must assume that the contracting activity 
didn't consider that purchasing the items as a family would result in 
lower prices. The nonprofit agency will be requested to solicit 
quotations from the commenter's firm for the components that the firm 
produces.
    As the contractor noted in its comments, the Committee's primary 
measure of impact of a Procurement List addition on a current 
contractor is the percentage of the contractor's sales which the 
addition represents. This addition represents a very small percentage 
of the contractor's sales. In addition, the Committee does look at the 
impact of previous additions on a contractor. However, the Committee 
gives greater weight to the impact of recent additions, and less to 
earlier ones, particularly when the contractor's sales have increased 
since the addition occurred. The reason for this approach is that 
contractors usually recover from Committee impacts, so earlier impacts 
are not often a significant factor in the total impact on a contractor 
of a new addition to the Procurement List. In this case, the 
contractor's sales have increased since the 1983 and 1987 additions and 
a 1991 addition of another commodity where it was the current 
contractor. Accordingly, the Committee has determined that the current 
addition of an aircraft safety belt to the Procurement List will not 
have a severe adverse impact on the current contractor.
    The Committee has interpreted the contractor's comments about the 
impact of the Committee's Javits-Wagner-O'Day (JWOD) Program on small 
business generally as a contention that the Committee should not add to 
its Procurement List commodities manufactured by small businesses. The 
Committee does not agree with this contention. The great majority of 
nonprofit agencies participating in the JWOD Program are small 
organizations, and their business capacities are similar to those of 
small businesses. The Committee would not be able to fulfill its 
statutory mandate of creating jobs for people who are blind or have 
other severe disabilities through nonprofit agencies if it could not 
add commodities manufactured by small businesses to its Procurement 
List. In addition, the JWOD Program's share of Federal contracts is 
only a very small percentage of the size of small businesses' share of 
Federal contracting. Consequently, small businesses, including the 
contractor, will not be significantly impeded by the JWOD Program from 
competing for DoD and other Federal contracts.
    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.
    Accordingly, the following commodity is hereby added to the 
Procurement List:

Belt, Aircraft Safety
    1680-00-163-1570

    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. 96-22776 Filed 9-5-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6353-01-M