[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 58 (Tuesday, March 26, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18344-18346]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-06927]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[OMB Control No. 9000-0130; Docket 2012-0076; Sequence 14]


Federal Acquisition Regulation; Submission for OMB Review; Buy 
American Act--Free Trade Agreements--Israeli Trade Act Certificate

AGENCIES: Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration 
(GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

ACTION: Notice of request for an extension to an existing OMB 
clearance.

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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the 
Regulatory Secretariat will be submitting to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension of a 
previously approved information collection requirement concerning the 
Buy American Act--Free Trade Agreements--Israeli Trade Act Certificate. 
A notice was published in the Federal Register at 77 FR 43081, on July 
23, 2012. One comment was received.

DATES: Submit comments on or before April 25, 2013.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by Information Collection 9000-
0130, Buy American Act--Free Trade Agreements--Israeli Trade Act 
Certificate, by any of the following methods:
     Regulations.gov: http://www.regulations.gov. Submit 
comments via the Federal eRulemaking portal by

[[Page 18345]]

searching ``Information Collection 9000-0130, Buy American Act--Free 
Trade Agreements--Israeli Trade Act Certificate'' under the heading 
``Enter Keyword or ID'' and selecting ``Search''. Select the link 
``Submit a Comment'' that corresponds with ``Information Collection 
9000-0130, Buy American Act--Free Trade Agreements--Israeli Trade Act 
Certificate''. Follow the instructions provided at the ``Submit a 
Comment'' screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and 
``Information Collection 9000-0130, Buy American Act--Free Trade 
Agreements--Israeli Trade Act Certificate'' on your attached document.
     Fax: 202-501-4067.
     Mail: General Services Administration, Regulatory 
Secretariat (MVCB), 1275 First Street NE., Washington, DC 20417. ATTN: 
Hada Flowers/IC 9000-0130, Buy American Act--Free Trade Agreements--
Israeli Trade Act Certificate.
    Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite Information 
Collection 9000-0130, Buy American Act--Free Trade Agreements--Israeli 
Trade Act Certificate, in all correspondence related to this 
collection. All comments received will be posted without change to 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal and/or business 
confidential information provided.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Cecelia L. Davis, Procurement 
Analyst, Contract Policy Division, GSA, (202) 219-0202 or via email at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Purpose

    Under the Free Trade Agreements Act of 1979, unless specifically 
exempted by statute or regulation, agencies are required to evaluate 
offers, over a certain dollar limitation, to supply an eligible product 
without regard to the restrictions of the Buy American Act. FAR 
provision 52.225-4, Buy American Act--Free Trade Agreements--Israeli 
Trade Act Certificate, requires an offeror to certify that the offered 
products are domestic end products and Free Trade Agreement (FTA) end 
products. The provision also requires an offeror to identify foreign 
end products.
    Contracting officers use the information to give domestic and FTA 
country end products a preference during the evaluation of offers. 
Items having components of unknown origin are considered to have been 
mined, produced, or manufactured outside the United States.

B. Analysis of Public Comments

    A notice was published in the Federal Register at 77 FR 43081, on 
July 23, 2012. One respondent submitted public comments on the 
extension of the previously approved information collection. The 
analysis of public comments is summarized as follows:
    Comment: The respondent commented that the extension of the 
information collection would violate the fundamental purposes of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act because of the burden it puts on the entity 
submitting the information and the agency collecting the information.
    Response: In accordance with the Paperwork Required Act (PRA), 
agencies can request an OMB approval of an existing information 
collection. The PRA requires that agencies use the Federal Register 
notice and comment process, to extend the OMB's approval, at least 
every three years. This extension, to a previously approved information 
collection, pertains to implementation of FAR 25.406 and the provision 
at FAR 52.225-4, Buy American Act--Free Trade Agreements--Israeli Trade 
Act Certificate, in accordance with the terms of the Free Trade 
Agreements Act of 1979. Under the Free Trade Agreements Act of 1979, 
unless specifically exempted by statute or regulation, agencies are 
required to evaluate offers (over a certain dollar limitation) to 
supply an eligible product, without regard to restrictions of the Buy 
American Act. Offerors identify covered Free Trade Agreement (FTA) 
country end products and other foreign end products on this certificate 
in accordance with the FAR provision at 52.225-4. The contracting 
officer uses the information to identify covered FTA country end 
products. Offers are evaluated by giving a preference to domestic and 
covered FTA country end products over other products, as provided for 
by law and treaty.
    Comment: The respondent commented that the agency did not 
accurately estimate the public burden challenging that the agency's 
methodology for calculating it is insufficient and inadequate and does 
not reflect the total burden. For this reason, the respondent provided 
that the agency should reassess the total burden hours and revise the 
estimate upwards to be more accurate, as was done in FAR Case 2007-006. 
The same respondent also provided that the burden of compliance with 
the agency's information collection requirement greatly exceeds the 
agency's estimate and outweighs any potential utility of the extension.
    Response: Serious consideration is given, during the open comment 
period, to all comments received and adjustments are made to the 
paperwork burden estimate based on reasonable considerations provided 
by the public. This is evidenced, as the respondent notes, in FAR Case 
2007-006 where an adjustment was made from the total preparation hours 
from three to 60. This change was made considering particularly the 
hours that would be required for review within the company, prior to 
release to the Government.
    The burden is prepared taking into consideration the necessary 
criteria in OMB guidance for estimating the paperwork burden put on the 
entity submitting the information. For example, consideration is given 
to an entity reviewing instructions; using technology to collect, 
process, and disclose information; adjusting existing practices to 
comply with requirements; searching data sources; completing and 
reviewing the response; and transmitting or disclosing information. The 
estimated burden hours for a collection are based on an average between 
the hours that a simple disclosure by a very small business might 
require and the much higher numbers that might be required for a very 
complex disclosure by a major corporation. Also, the estimated burden 
hours should only include projected hours for those actions which a 
company would not undertake in the normal course of business.
    Careful consideration went into assessing the estimated burden 
hours for this collection, and it is determined that an upward 
adjustment is not required at this time related to the responses per 
respondent. The revised estimate of two responses per respondent is 
based upon contractor use of the Online Representation and 
Certifications Application (ORCA) function in the System for Award 
Management (SAM) rather than the completion of representations and 
certifications for each solicitation/contract for which a vendor 
submits an offer. The ORCA function was developed to eliminate the 
administrative burden for contractors of submitting the same 
information to various contracting offices, and to establish a common 
source for this information to procurement offices across the 
Government. Prior to the ORCA function's implementation, prospective 
contractors were required to submit representations and certifications 
in paper form for each individual contract award. Under these 
conditions, a higher response rate per

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year per contractor as suggested by the respondent may have been 
necessary. However, using the ORCA function in SAM, a contractor can 
enter their representations and certification information once for use 
on all Federal contracts and solicitations. FAR 4.1201(a) requires 
prospective contractors to complete electronic annual representations 
and certifications in conjunction with required registration in the 
Central Contractor Registration (CCR). These requirements are met 
through functionality in SAM. The representations and certifications 
are effective until one year from the date of submission or update to 
the ORCA function in SAM. For purposes of this information collection, 
initial data entry plus one update per year was considered reasonable 
and was used to estimate the number of responses per respondent per 
year, i.e., 2 responses per respondent.
    We have reassessed the hours of burden per response based on the 
respondent's comment, and have determined that an upward estimate of 
thirty minutes would provide a more accurate measure of the time 
required to complete or update the initial certification.
    However, at any point, members of the public may submit comments 
for further consideration, and are encouraged to provide data to 
support their request for an adjustment.

B. Annual Reporting Burden

    Respondents: 162,000.
    Responses per Respondent: 2.
    Annual Responses: 324,000.
    Hours per Response: .5.
    Total Burden Hours: 162,000.
    Obtaining Copies of Proposals: Requesters may obtain a copy of the 
information collection documents from the General Services 
Administration, Regulatory Secretariat (MVCB), 1275 First Street NE., 
Washington, DC 20417, telephone (202) 501-4755. Please cite OMB Control 
No. 9000-0130, Buy American Act--Free Trade Agreements--Israeli Trade 
Act Certificate, in all correspondence.

    Dated: March 21, 2013.
William Clark,
Acting Director, Federal Acquisition Policy Division, Office of 
Governmentwide Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition Policy, Office 
of Governmentwide Policy.
[FR Doc. 2013-06927 Filed 3-25-13; 8:45 am]
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