[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 56 (Tuesday, March 24, 2015)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 15544-15545]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-06735]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

48 CFR Part 25

[FAR Case 2015-001; Docket No. 2015-0001; Sequence No. 1]
RIN 9000-AM88


Federal Acquisition Regulation; List of Domestically Nonavailable 
Articles

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

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: DoD, GSA, and NASA are considering amending the Federal 
Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to update the list of domestically 
nonavailable articles under the Buy American Act. DoD, GSA, and NASA 
are seeking information that will assist in identifying domestic 
capabilities and for evaluating whether some articles on the list of 
domestically nonavailable articles are now mined, produced, or 
manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably 
available commercial quantities and of a satisfactory quality.

DATES: Interested parties should submit written comments to the 
Regulatory Secretariat at one of the addressees shown below on or 
before May 26, 2015 to be considered in the formulation of a proposed 
rule.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments in response to FAR Case 2015-001 by any of 
the following methods:
    <bullet> Regulations.gov: http://www.regulations.gov. Submit 
comments via the Federal eRulemaking portal by searching for ``FAR Case 
2015-001''. Select the link ``Comment Now'' that corresponds with ``FAR 
Case 2015-001''. Follow the instructions provided at the ``Comment 
Now'' screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and 
``FAR Case 2015-001'' on your attached document.
    <bullet> Fax: 202-501-4067.
    <bullet> Mail: General Services Administration, Regulatory 
Secretariat (MVCB), ATTN: Ms. Flowers, 1800 F Street NW., 2nd Floor, 
Washington, DC 20405-0001.
    Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite FAR Case 2015-
001 in all correspondence related to this case. 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, at 202-219-0202, for clarification of content. For information 
pertaining to status or publication schedules, contact the Regulatory 
Secretariat at 202-501-4755. Please cite FAR Case 2015-001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    A. The Buy American statute (41 U.S.C. chapter 83) generally 
requires that only domestically mined, produced, or manufactured 
articles be procured for public use in the United States. The Buy 
American statute provides an exception for articles not mined, 
produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and 
reasonably available commercial quantities and of a satisfactory 
quality. FAR 25.103(b)(1) provides a determination that articles listed 
at FAR 25.104(a) meet the conditions of this exception. This 
determination does not necessarily mean that there is no domestic 
source for the listed items, but that domestic sources can only meet 50 
percent or less of total U.S. Government and nongovernment demand.
    The established list of articles identified in FAR 25.104(a) is a 
comprehensive and wide-ranging mix of natural resources, compounds, 
materials, and other items of supply. Although some articles on the 
list have no known domestic production sources (e.g., vanilla beans), 
many of the articles are known to have some domestic production 
sources, but those sources have been determined in the past to be 
inadequate to meet U.S. demand. Examples of such articles range from 
goat and kidskins (negligible domestic production), to crude iodine (5 
percent of U.S. Government and nongovernment demand), to bismuth (not 
in excess of 50 percent of U.S. Government and nongovernment demand).
    The list is reviewed every five years, as required by FAR 
25.104(b). DoD, GSA, and NASA last published in the Federal Register a 
request for public comment on the list on August 7, 2009 (74 FR 39597).
    The Councils are seeking information to determine whether some 
articles should be removed from the list because they are now mined, 
produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and 
reasonably available commercial quantities and of a satisfactory 
quality. Specific information with regard to domestic production 
capacity in relation to U.S. Government and nongovernment demand and 
the quality of domestically produced items would be most helpful in 
determining whether articles should remain on or be removed from the 
list. A sources-sought notice will be published in FedBizOpps in an 
effort to increase the awareness of this request and to receive greater 
responses from interested parties on the nonavailable articles listing.
    B. The current domestically nonavailable listing at FAR 25.104 is 
as follow:
    <bullet> Acetylene, black.
    <bullet> Agar, bulk.
    <bullet> Anise.
    <bullet> Antimony, as metal or oxide.
    <bullet> Asbestos, amosite, chrysotile, and crocidolite.
    <bullet> Bamboo shoots.
    <bullet> Bananas.
    <bullet> Bauxite.
    <bullet> Beef, corned, canned.
    <bullet> Beef extract.
    <bullet> Bephenium hydroxynapthoate.

[[Page 15545]]

    <bullet> Bismuth.
    <bullet> Books, trade, text, technical, or scientific; newspapers; 
pamphlets; magazines; periodicals; printed briefs and films; not 
printed in the United States and for which domestic editions are not 
available.
    <bullet> Brazil nuts, unroasted.
    <bullet> Cadmium, ores and flue dust.
    <bullet> Calcium cyanamide.
    <bullet> Capers.
    <bullet> Cashew nuts.
    <bullet> Castor beans and castor oil.
    <bullet> Chalk, English.
    <bullet> Chestnuts.
    <bullet> Chicle.
    <bullet> Chrome ore or chromite.
    <bullet> Cinchona bark.
    <bullet> Cobalt, in cathodes, rondelles, or other primary ore and 
metal forms.
    <bullet> Cocoa beans.
    <bullet> Coconut and coconut meat, unsweetened, in shredded, 
desiccated, or similarly prepared form.
    <bullet> Coffee, raw or green bean.
    <bullet> Colchicine alkaloid, raw.
    <bullet> Copra.
    <bullet> Cork, wood or bark and waste.
    <bullet> Cover glass, microscope slide.
    <bullet> Crane rail (85-pound per foot).
    <bullet> Cryolite, natural.
    <bullet> Dammar gum.
    <bullet> Diamonds, industrial, stones and abrasives.
    <bullet> Emetine, bulk.
    <bullet> Ergot, crude.
    <bullet> Erythrityl tetranitrate.
    <bullet> Fair linen, altar.
    <bullet> Fibers of the following types: abaca, abace, agave, coir, 
flax, jute, jute burlaps, palmyra, and sisal.
    <bullet> Goat and kidskins.
    <bullet> Goat hair canvas.
    <bullet> Grapefruit sections, canned.
    <bullet> Graphite, natural, crystalline, crucible grade.
    <bullet> Hand file sets (Swiss pattern).
    <bullet> Handsewing needles.
    <bullet> Hemp yarn.
    <bullet> Hog bristles for brushes.
    <bullet> Hyoscine, bulk.
    <bullet> Ipecac, root.
    <bullet> Iodine, crude.
    <bullet> Kaurigum.
    <bullet> Lac.
    <bullet> Leather, sheepskin, hair type.
    <bullet> Lavender oil.
    <bullet> Manganese.
    <bullet> Menthol, natural bulk.
    <bullet> Mica.
    <bullet> Microprocessor chips (brought onto a Government 
construction site as separate units for incorporation into building 
systems during construction or repair and alteration of real property).
    <bullet> Modacrylic fiber.
    <bullet> Nickel, primary, in ingots, pigs, shots, cathodes, or 
similar forms; nickel oxide and nickel salts.
    <bullet> Nitroguanidine (also known as picrite).
    <bullet> Nux vomica, crude.
    <bullet> Oiticica oil.
    <bullet> Olive oil.
    <bullet> Olives (green), pitted or unpitted, or stuffed, in bulk.
    <bullet> Opium, crude.
    <bullet> Oranges, mandarin, canned.
    <bullet> Petroleum, crude oil, unfinished oils, and finished 
products.
    <bullet> Pine needle oil.
    <bullet> Pineapple, canned.
    <bullet> Platinum and related group metals, refined, as sponge, 
powder, ingots, or cast bars.
    <bullet> Pyrethrum flowers.
    <bullet> Quartz crystals.
    <bullet> Quebracho.
    <bullet> Quinidine.
    <bullet> Quinine.
    <bullet> Rabbit fur felt.
    <bullet> Radium salts, source and special nuclear materials.
    <bullet> Rosettes.
    <bullet> Rubber, crude and latex.
    <bullet> Rutile.
    <bullet> Santonin, crude.
    <bullet> Secretin.
    <bullet> Shellac.
    <bullet> Silk, raw and unmanufactured.
    <bullet> Spare and replacement parts for equipment of foreign 
manufacture, and for which domestic parts are not available.
    <bullet> Spices and herbs, in bulk.
    <bullet> Sugars, raw.
    <bullet> Swords and scabbards.
    <bullet> Talc, block, steatite.
    <bullet> Tantalum.
    <bullet> Tapioca flour and cassava.
    <bullet> Tartar, crude; tartaric acid and cream of tartar in bulk.
    <bullet> Tea in bulk.
    <bullet> Thread, metallic (gold).
    <bullet> Thyme oil.
    <bullet> Tin in bars, blocks, and pigs.
    <bullet> Triprolidine hydrochloride.
    <bullet> Tungsten.
    <bullet> Vanilla beans.
    <bullet> Venom, cobra.
    <bullet> Water chestnuts.
    <bullet> Wax, carnauba.
    <bullet> Wire glass.
    <bullet> Woods; logs, veneer, and lumber of the following species: 
Alaskan yellow cedar, angelique, balsa, ekki, greenheart, lignum vitae, 
mahogany, and teak.
    <bullet> Yarn, 50 Denier rayon.
    <bullet> Yeast, active dry and instant active dry.

B. Executive Order 12866 and 13563

    Executive Orders (E.O.s) 12866 and 13563 direct agencies to assess 
all costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if 
regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize 
net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public 
health and safety effects, distributive impacts, and equity). E.O. 
13563 emphasizes the importance of quantifying both costs and benefits, 
of reducing costs, of harmonizing rules, and of promoting flexibility. 
This is not a significant regulatory action and, therefore, was not 
subject to review under Section 6(b) of E.O. 12866, Regulatory Planning 
and Review, dated September 30, 1993. This rule is not a major rule 
under 5 U.S.C. 804.

List of Subject in 48 CFR Part 25

    Government procurement.

    Dated: March 19, 2015.
William Clark,
Director, Office of Government-wide Acquisition Policy, Office of 
Acquisition Policy, Office of Government-wide Policy.
[FR Doc. 2015-06735 Filed 3-23-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6820-EP-P