106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1183
AN ACT
To amend the Fastener Quality Act to strengthen the protec-
tion against the sale of mismarked, misrepresented, and
counterfeit fasteners and eliminate unnecessary require-
ments, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fastener Quality Act
Amendments Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
Section 2 of the Fastener Quality Act (15 U.S.C.
5401) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
‘‘The Congress finds that—
‘‘(1) the United States fastener industry is a
significant contributor to the global economy, em-
ploying thousands of workers in hundreds of commu-
nities;
‘‘(2) the American economy uses billions of fas-
teners each year;
‘‘(3) state-of-the-art manufacturing and im-
proved quality assurance systems have dramatically
improved fastener quality, so virtually all fasteners
sold in commerce meet or exceed the consensus
standards for the uses to which they are applied;
‘‘(4) a small number of mismarked, misrepre-
sented, and counterfeit fasteners do enter commerce
in the United States; and
‘‘(5) multiple criteria for the identification of
fasteners exist, including grade identification mark-
ings and manufacturer’s insignia, to enable pur-
chasers and users of fasteners to accurately evaluate
the characteristics of individual fasteners.’’.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
Section 3 of the Fastener Quality Act (15 U.S.C.
5402) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
‘‘As used in this Act, the term—
‘‘(1) ‘accredited laboratory’ means a fastener
testing facility used to perform end-of-line testing
required by a consensus standard or standards to
verify that a lot of fasteners conforms to the grade
identification marking called for in the consensus
standard or standards to which the lot of fasteners
has been manufactured, and which—
‘‘(A) meets the requirements of ISO/IEC
Guide 25 (or another document approved by the
Director under section 10(c)), including revi-
sions from time to time; and
‘‘(B) has been accredited by a laboratory
accreditation body that meets the requirements
of ISO/IEC Guide 58 (or another document ap-
proved by the Director under section 10(d)), in-
cluding revisions from time to time;
‘‘(2) ‘consensus standard’ means the provisions
of a document that describes fastener characteristics
published by a consensus standards organization or
a Federal agency, and does not include a proprietary
standard;
‘‘(3) ‘consensus standards organization’ means
the American Society for Testing and Materials, the
American National Standards Institute, the Amer-
ican Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society of
Automotive Engineers, the International Organiza-
tion for Standardization, any other organization
identified as a United States consensus standards
organization or a foreign and international con-
sensus standards organization in the Federal Reg-
ister at 61 Fed. Reg. 50582–83 (September 26,
1996), and any successor organizations thereto;
‘‘(4) ‘Director’ means the Director of the Na-
tional Institute of Standards and Technology;
‘‘(5) ‘distributor’ means a person who pur-
chases fasteners for the purpose of reselling them at
wholesale to unaffiliated persons within the United
States (an original equipment manufacturer and its
dealers shall be considered affiliated persons for pur-
poses of this Act);
‘‘(6) ‘fastener’ means a metallic screw, nut,
bolt, or stud having internal or external threads,
with a nominal diameter of 6 millimeters or greater,
in the case of such items described in metric terms,
or 1⁄4 inch or greater, in the case of such items de-
scribed in terms of the English system of measure-
ment, or a load-indicating washer, that is through-
hardened or represented as meeting a consensus
standard that calls for through-hardening, and that
is grade identification marked or represented as
meeting a consensus standard that requires grade
identification marking, except that such term does
not include any screw, nut, bolt, stud, or load-indi-
cating washer that is—
‘‘(A) part of an assembly;
‘‘(B) a part that is ordered for use as a
spare, substitute, service, or replacement part,
unless that part is in a package containing
more than 75 of any such part at the time of
sale, or a part that is contained in an assembly
kit;
‘‘(C) produced and marked as ASTM A
307 Grade A, or a successor standard thereto;
‘‘(D) produced in accordance with ASTM
F 432, or a successor standard thereto;
‘‘(E) specifically manufactured for use on
an aircraft if the quality and suitability of those
fasteners for that use has been approved—
‘‘(i) by the Federal Aviation Adminis-
tration; or
‘‘(ii) by a foreign airworthiness au-
thority as described in part 21.29, 21.500,
21.502, or 21.617 of title 14 of the Code
of Federal Regulations;
‘‘(F) manufactured in accordance with a
fastener quality assurance system; or
‘‘(G) manufactured to a proprietary stand-
ard, whether or not such proprietary standard
directly or indirectly references a consensus
standard or any portion thereof;
‘‘(7) 
‘fastener 
quality 
assurance 
system’
means—
‘‘(A) a system that meets the require-
ments, including revisions from time to time,
of—
‘‘(i) International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) Standard 9000,
9001, 9002, or TS16949;
‘‘(ii) Quality System (QS) 9000
Standard;
‘‘(iii) Verband der Automobilindustrie
e. V. (VDA) 6.1 Standard; or
‘‘(iv) Aerospace Basic Quality System
Standard AS9000; or
‘‘(B) any fastener manufacturing system—
‘‘(i) that has as a stated goal the pre-
vention of defects through continuous im-
provement;
‘‘(ii) that seeks to attain the goal stat-
ed in clause (i) by incorporating—
‘‘(I) advanced quality planning;
‘‘(II) monitoring and control of
the manufacturing process;
‘‘(III) product verification em-
bodied in a comprehensive written
control plan for product and process
characteristics, and process controls
(including process influence factors
and statistical process control), tests,
and measurement systems to be used
in production; and
‘‘(IV) the creation, maintenance,
and retention of electronic, photo-
graphic, or paper records required by
the control plan regarding the inspec-
tions, tests, and measurements per-