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the Director, and shall be made without further obligation
to the United States Government.’’.
(b) ADDITIONAL AMENDMENT.—(1) Section 28 of
the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act
(15 U.S.C. 278n) is further amended by striking the pe-
riod at the end of the first sentence of subsection
(d)(11)(A) and inserting in lieu thereof the following: ‘‘or
any other participant in a joint venture receiving financial
assistance under this section, as agreed by the parties,
notwithstanding the requirements of section 202 (a) and
(b) of title 35, United States Code.’’.
(2) The amendment made by this subsection shall be
effective only with respect to assistance for which solicita-
tions for proposals are made after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act.
SEC. 6. MANUFACTURING EXTENSION PARTNERSHIP PRO-
GRAM CENTER EXTENSION.
Section 25(c)(5) of the National Institute of Stand-
ards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k(c)(5)) is
amended by striking ‘‘, which are designed’’ and all that
follows through ‘‘operation of a Center.’’ and inserting in
lieu thereof ‘‘. After the sixth year, a Center may receive
additional financial support under this section if it has re-
ceived a positive evaluation through an independent re-
view, under procedures established by the Institute. Such
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an independent review shall be required at least every two
years after the sixth year of operation. Funding received
for a fiscal year under this section after the sixth year
of operation shall not exceed the proportion of the capital
and annual operating and maintenance costs of the Center
received by the Center during its sixth year of operation.’’.
SEC. 7. MALCOLM BALDRIGE QUALITY AWARD.
Section 17(c)(3) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3711a(c)(3)) is amend-
ed by inserting ‘‘, unless the Secretary determines that
a third award is merited and can be given at no additional
cost to the Federal Government’’ after ‘‘in any year’’.
SEC. 8. NEXT GENERATION INTERNET.
None of the funds authorized by this Act, or any
other Act enacted before the date of the enactment of this
Act, may be used for the Next Generation Internet. Not-
withstanding the previous sentence, funds may be used for
the continuation of programs and activities that were
funded and carried out during fiscal year 1997.
SEC. 9. LIMITATIONS.
(a) PROHIBITION OF LOBBYING ACTIVITIES.—None
of the funds authorized by this Act shall be available for
any activity whose purpose is to influence legislation pend-
ing before the Congress, except that this subsection shall
not prevent officers or employees of the United States or
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of its departments or agencies from communicating to
Members of Congress on the request of any Member or
to Congress, through the proper channels, requests for leg-
islation or appropriations which they deem necessary for
the efficient conduct of the public business.
(b) LIMITATION ON APPROPRIATIONS.—No sums are
authorized to be appropriated to the Director of the Na-
tional Institute of Standards and Technology for fiscal
years 1998 and 1999 for the activities for which sums are
authorized by this Act, unless such sums are specifically
authorized to be appropriated by this Act.
(c) ELIGIBILITY FOR AWARDS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology shall exclude
from consideration for grant agreements made by
the Institute after fiscal year 1997 any person who
received funds, other than those described in para-
graph (2), appropriated for a fiscal year after fiscal
year 1997, under a grant agreement from any Fed-
eral funding source for a project that was not sub-
jected to a competitive, merit-based award process.
Any exclusion from consideration pursuant to this
subsection shall be effective for a period of 5 years
after the person receives such Federal funds.
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(2) EXCEPTION.—Paragraph (1) shall not
apply to the receipt of Federal funds by a person
due to the membership of that person in a class
specified by law for which assistance is awarded to
members of the class according to a formula pro-
vided by law.
(3) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this sub-
section, the term ‘‘grant agreement’’ means a legal
instrument whose principal purpose is to transfer a
thing of value to the recipient to carry out a public
purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a
law of the United States, and does not include the
acquisition (by purchase, lease, or barter) of prop-
erty or services for the direct benefit or use of the
United States Government. Such term does not in-
clude a cooperative agreement (as such term is used
in section 6305 of title 31, United States Code) or
a cooperative research and development agreement
(as such term is defined in section 12(d)(1) of the
Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of
1980 (15 U.S.C. 3710a(d)(1))).
SEC. 10. NOTICE.
(a) NOTICE OF REPROGRAMMING.—If any funds au-
thorized by this Act are subject to a reprogramming action
that requires notice to be provided to the Appropriations
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Committees of the House of Representatives and the Sen-
ate, notice of such action shall concurrently be provided
to the Committee on Science of the House of Representa-
tives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate.
(b) NOTICE OF REORGANIZATION.—The Secretary of
Commerce shall provide notice to the Committees on
Science and Appropriations of the House of Representa-
tives, and the Committees on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation and Appropriations of the Senate, not
later than 15 days before any major reorganization of any
program, project, or activity of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology.
SEC. 11. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM.
With the year 2000 fast approaching, it is the sense
of Congress that the National Institute of Standards and
Technology should—
(1) give high priority to correcting all 2-digit
date-related problems in its computer systems to en-
sure that those systems continue to operate effec-
tively in the year 2000 and beyond;
(2) assess immediately the extent of the risk to
the operations of the Institute posed by the problems
referred to in paragraph (1), and plan and budget
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for achieving Year 2000 compliance for all of its
mission-critical systems; and
(3) develop contingency plans for those systems
that the Institute is unable to correct in time.
SEC. 12. BUY AMERICAN.
(a) COMPLIANCE WITH BUY AMERICAN ACT.—No
funds appropriated pursuant to this Act may be expended
by an entity unless the entity agrees that in expending
the assistance the entity will comply with sections 2
through 4 of the Act of March 3, 1933 (41 U.S.C. 10a–
10c, popularly known as the ‘‘Buy American Act’’).
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—In the case of any equip-
ment or products that may be authorized to be purchased
with financial assistance provided under this Act, it is the
sense of Congress that entities receiving such assistance
should, in expending the assistance, purchase only Amer-
ican-made equipment and products.
(c) NOTICE
TO RECIPIENTS
OF ASSISTANCE.—In
providing financial assistance under this Act, the Sec-
retary of Commerce shall provide to each recipient of the
assistance a notice describing the statement made in sub-
section (a) by the Congress.
Passed the House of Representatives April 24, 1997.
Attest:
ROBIN H. CARLE,
Clerk.