[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