Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 197 / Friday, October 10, 1997 / Notices 52969

U.S.C. 47(a)(2) and 41 CFR 51–2.3. Its

purpose is to provide interested persons

an opportunity to submit comments on

the possible impact of the proposed

actions.

If the Committee approves the

proposed additions, all entities of the

Federal Government (except as

otherwise indicated) will be required to

procure the services listed below from

nonprofit agencies employing persons

who are blind or have other severe

disabilities.

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

services to the Government.

2. The action does not appear to have

a severe economic impact on current

contractors for the services.

3. The action will result in

authorizing small entities to furnish the

services to the Government.

4. There are no known regulatory

alternatives which would accomplish

the objectives of the Javits-WagnerO’Day Act (41 U.S.C. 46–48c) in

connection with the services proposed

for addition to the Procurement List.

Comments on this certification are

invited. Commenters should identify the

statement(s) underlying the certification

on which they are providing additional

information.

The following services have been

proposed for addition to Procurement

List for production by the nonprofit

agencies listed:

Janitorial/Custodial

Keene USARC, 682 Main Street,

Keene, New Hampshire

NPA: Easter Seal Society of New

Hampshire, Manchester, New

Hampshire

Janitorial/Custodial

Craft Bros. USARC, 11 St. Anselm’s

Drive, Manchester, New Hampshire

NPA: Easter Seal Society of New

Hampshire, Manchester, New

Hampshire

Janitorial/Custodial

Grenier Field USARC, Manchester,

New Hampshire

NPA: Easter Seal Society of New

Hampshire, Manchester, New

Hampshire

Janitorial/Custodial

Paul A. Doble USARC, 125 Cottage

Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

NPA: Easter Seal Society of New

Hampshire, Manchester, New

Hampshire

Janitorial/Custodial

Raymond Bisson USARC, 70

Rochester Hill Road, Rochester,

New Hampshire

NPA: Easter Seal Society of New

Hampshire, Manchester, New

Hampshire

Janitorial/Custodial

Rainbow Bridge U.S. Plaza, Niagara

Falls, New York

NPA: Niagara County Chapter,

NYSARC, Niagara Falls, New York

Switchboard Operation

Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 423

East 23rd Street, New York, New

York

NPA: The Corporate Source, Inc., New

York, New York

Beverly L. Milkman,

Executive Director.

[FR Doc. 97–26996 Filed 10–9–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6353–01–P

COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM

PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR

SEVERELY DISABLED

Procurement List; Additions

AGENCY: Committee for Purchase From

People Who Are Blind or Severely

Disabled.

ACTION: Additions to the Procurement

List.

SUMMARY: This action adds to the

Procurement List commodities and a

service to be furnished by nonprofit

agencies employing persons who are

blind or have other severe disabilities.

EFFECTIVE DATE: November 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 June

20, July 11, 18, August 22, 1997, the

Committee for Purchase From People

Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled

published notices (62 FR 33585, 37191,

38518 and 44637) of proposed additions

to the Procurement List.

The following comments pertain to

Drain Plug Assembly (2590–00–299–

0739)

Comments were received from the

current contractor for the drain plug

assembly, both through its counsel and

through the office of a Member of

Congress. The contractor indicated that

addition of this item to the Procurement

List would severely affect the company

in that it would lose sales and have to

close a production line, with the layoff

of several workers. The contractor also

stated that its subcontractors for plating,

heat treating, and painting of

components would be affected.

The contractor claimed that the

addition would eliminate at least one

proven supplier of the drain plug

assemblies, as the company could not

afford to maintain an idle production

line and would not be able to retool fast

enough to meet emergency

requirements. The contractor questioned

the nonprofit agency’s capability to

meet emergency requirements and its

ability to produce the assembly at a

price comparable to that currently

offered by the contractor, claiming that

the addition will greatly increase the

Government’s cost to obtain the item.

The contractor also indicated that

addition of the item to the Procurement

List was inconsistent with Government

policies to increase contracting with

small businesses.

The contractor indicated that the

drain plug assembly represented a very

small percentage of its Government

sales, and thus an even smaller

percentage of its total sales. These

percentages are well below the level the

Committee normally considers to

constitute severe adverse impact on a

contractor. In addition, we have been

informed that demand for the assembly

has been sharply reduced, so sales of the

item will represent an even smaller

amount in the future.

The nonprofit agency will be

assembling the components of the drain

plug assembly, so the contractor will

have the opportunity to provide these

components as a subcontractor and may

not have to shut its production line, lay

off workers, and remove itself from the

ranks of potential suppliers of the drain

plug assembly. Committee regulations

encourage nonprofit agencies to

subcontract with small businesses such

as the commenting contractor.

Although the contractor indicated that

its subcontractors would be providing

information to the Committee on how

the addition would affect them, we have

received no such information. It would

thus appear that any impact on these

subcontractors is not severe.

Assessments of Government

contractor capability normally include

capability to meet emergency

requirements that are in excess of

normal demands. Nonprofit agencies

participating in the Committee’s JavitsWagner-O’Day (JWOD) Program are held

to the same capability standards as other

Government contractors. In this case,

the Government contracting activity

which buys the drain plug assembly

declined an opportunity to conduct a
52970 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 197 / Friday, October 10, 1997 / Notices

capability inspection of the nonprofit

agency, stating that it considered the

nonprofit agency capable of producing

the item. The Committee found the

nonprofit agency capable based on the

contracting activity’s conclusion and an

assessment by industrial engineers for

the central nonprofit agency

representing this nonprofit agency.

The Committee is required to set a fair

market price for commodities, such as

the drain plug assembly, which it adds

to the Procurement List. The price,

which is set through application of the

Committee’s Fair Market Pricing Policy,

reflects the market for the item in

question. This pricing mechanism

ensures that the Government does not

pay an unreasonable price for an item

added to the Procurement List. In this

case, the price was negotiated with the

contracting activity, which believes the

price is a fair one. Moreover, the

negotiated price is only slightly above

the contractor’s current price, and below

the recent contract price the contractor

quoted in its comments. It is well below

the high bid price the contractor also

quoted.

The Committee does not believe that

its addition of the drain plug assembly

to the Procurement List is inconsistent

with Government policy on increasing

small business contracting. Like the

Government’s small business

contracting programs, the JWOD

Program is intended to increase

Government contracting for its

constituency. However, the JWOD

Program is only a tiny fraction of the

size of the Government’s small business

contracting programs. Consequently, the

addition of the drain plug assembly to

the Procurement List, though regrettable

from the contractor’s viewpoint, does

not impair the Government’s larger

policy objectives for small business

contracting as a whole.

The following comments pertain to File,

Folder (7530–00–990–8884)

Comments were received in response

to sales data requests sent to two

companies, the current contractor for

the file folder at the Ft. Worth depot and

a company which supplies the folder to

another Government depot. Both

contractors claimed that this

Procurement List addition would have a

severe adverse impact on them. The

current contractor for the Ft. Worth

depot also indicated that it was

continuing to be affected by earlier

additions to the Procurement List,

which had taken away business faster

than the company could adapt to the

losses, and submitted financial data to

support contentions about its current

profitability.

The Committee decided to reduce the

supply requirement being added to the

Procurement List to 50 percent of the

needs of the Ft. Worth depot to reduce

the impact on contractors. At this level,

the impact of the addition on the

current contractor is below the level

which the Committee normally

considers to be severe adverse impact,

even when any effects of previous

additions and the contractor’s current

profitability are taken into account. The

earlier impacts occurred in 1979 and

1995. The Committee notes that the

current contractor’s sales have risen

significantly since those impacts

occurred, so the Committee does not

agree with the current contractor’s

contention that it has been unable to

adapt to the losses it suffered.

The other contractor is not currently

providing the folder to the Ft. Worth

depot, so its objection is only to losing

the opportunity to supply the folder in

the future. The Committee does not

consider this loss of a mere expectancy

of a Government contract, by itself, to

constitute severe adverse impact. In this

case, because the Committee is leaving

50 percent of the Ft. Worth depot’s

supply requirement on the competitive

market, the contractor will continue to

have a chance to supply the

requirement.

The following comments pertain to Bag,

T-Shirt & Bag, Produce, Star Bottom

(8105)

Comments were received from a

current contractor for the bags. The

contractor indicated that patents for the

bags are controlled by two large oil

companies which readily take action

against any infringement of the patents.

The contractor suggested that the patent

requirements for the bags be researched

before the nonprofit agency makes the

bags.

Patent counsel for the nonprofit

agency has researched the patents, and

has advised the nonprofit agency and

the Committee that the nonprofit

agency’s method of making the bags will

not infringe the patents in question.

Consequently, the Committee has

concluded that the patents are not an

obstacle to addition of the bags to the

Procurement List.

After consideration of the material

presented to it concerning capability of

qualified nonprofit agencies to provide

the commodities and service and impact

of the additions on the current or most

recent contractors, the Committee has

determined that the commodities and

service 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

commodities and service to the

Government.

2. The action will not have a severe

economic impact on current contractors

for the commodities and service.

3. The action will result in

authorizing small entities to furnish the

commodities and service to the

Government.

4. There are no known regulatory

alternatives which would accomplish

the objectives of the Javits-WagnerO’Day Act (41 U.S.C. 46–48c) in

connection with the commodities and

service proposed for addition to the

Procurement List.

Accordingly, the following

commodities and service are hereby

added to the Procurement List:

Commodities

Plug Assembly, Drain

2590–00–299–0739

Folder, File, Pressboard

7530–00–990–8884

(50% of the requirements for the GSA

Fort Worth, TX depot)

Bag, T-Shirt Style

8105–00–NIB–1023

(Requirements for DeCA Regions

Midwest, Northwest, Southwest,

Alaska & Hawaii)

Bag, Produce, Star Bottom

8105–00–NIB–1046

(Requirements for DeCA Regions

Midwest, Northwest, Southwest,

Alaska & Hawaii)

Service

Janitorial/Custodial

West Los Angeles USARC, Los

Angeles, California

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. 97–26997 Filed 10–9–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6353–01–P