Notice of Buy American Waiver Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, 44613-44614 [2011-18643]

Download as PDF Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 143 / Tuesday, July 26, 2011 / Notices I. Background manufactured goods used in the project are produced in the United States.’’ The ARRV has been developed under a cooperative agreement awarded to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) that began in 2007. UAF executed the shipyard contract in December 2009 and the project is currently under construction. The purpose of the Recovery Act is to stimulate economic recovery in part by funding current construction projects like the ARRV that are ‘‘shovel ready’’ without requiring projects to revise their standards and specifications, or to restart the bidding process. Subsections 1605(b) and (c) of the Recovery Act authorize the head of a Federal department or agency to waive the Buy American provision if the head of the agency finds that: (1) Applying the provision would be inconsistent with the public interest; (2) the relevant goods are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality; or (3) the inclusion of the goods produced in the United States will increase the cost of the project by more than 25 percent. If the head of the Federal department or agency waives the Buy American provision, then the head of the department or agency is required to publish a detailed justification in the Federal Register. Finally, section 1605(d) of the Recovery Act states that the Buy American provision must be applied in a manner consistent with the United States’ obligations under international agreements. NSF has previously granted exemptions for purchase of the bow thruster [75 FR 9256 (March 1, 2010)], anti-roll tank control system [76 FR 184 (January 3, 2011)], weather fax [76 FR 186 (January 3, 2011)], ultrasonic antifouling system [76 FR 35920 (June 20, 2011)], and HVAC generators [76 FR 35919 (June 20, 2011)]; all of which were in excess of this $10,000 de minimus waiver and not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities. The Recovery Act appropriated $400 million to NSF for several projects being funded by the Foundation’s Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account. The ARRV is one of NSF’s MREFC projects. Section 1605(a) of the Recovery Act, the Buy American provision, states that none of the funds appropriated by the Act ‘‘may be used for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of a public building or public work unless all of the iron, steel, and II. Finding That Individual Exemptions for Incidental Items Are Not in the Public Interest Ship construction projects typically involve the use of literally hundreds of miscellaneous, generally low-cost items that are essential for, but incidental to, the construction of the vessel. These items are permanently incorporated into the physical structure and connected to other sub-systems in the ship and include such things as galley appliances, stateroom furnishings, 7. Program Support Services NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved collection. Title of Information Collection: Program Evaluation Instruments for Program Support Services. OMB Number: 3320–0009. Affected Public: Business or other forprofit, not-for-profit, federal and state, local or tribal government. Frequency: One time. Annual Number of Respondents: 40. Total Annual Responses: 40. Average Burden per Response: 5. Total Annual Hours: 3.33. Total Burden Cost: $157. Notice of Buy American Waiver Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Authority: 20 U.S.C. 5601–5609. Dated: July 18, 2011. Ellen Wheeler, Executive Director, Udall Foundation. [FR Doc. 2011–18769 Filed 7–25–11; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6820–FN–P AGENCY: National Science Foundation (NSF). ACTION: Notice. NSF is hereby granting a limited project-specific exemption of section 1605 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), Public Law 111–5, 123 Stat. 115, 303 (2009), with respect to incidental items costing $10,000 or less used in and incorporated into the Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV) project. DATES: July 26, 2011. ADDRESSES: National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Virginia 22230. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Jeffrey Leithead, Division of Acquisition and Cooperative Support, 703–292– 4595. SUMMARY: In accordance with section 1605(c) of the Recovery Act and section 176.80 of Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the National Science Foundation (NSF) hereby provides notice that on July 6, 2011 the NSF Chief Financial Officer, in accordance with a delegation order from the Director of the agency on 27 May 2010, granted a de minimis exemption of section 1605 of the Recovery Act (Buy American provision) with respect to each incidental item costing $10,000 or less that is used in and incorporated into the ARRV project. The basis for this exemption is section 1605(b)(1) of the Recovery Act, in that executing individual exemptions for incidental items costing $10,000 or less is not in the public interest. The total cost of incidental items requiring use of this limited exemption is expected to be less than $750,000, which represents less than 0.5% of the total Recovery Act award. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY Designation of Eight Counties as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas AGENCY: Office of National Drug Control Policy. ACTION: Notice. The Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy has designated eight additional counties as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas pursuant to 21 U.S.C. 1706. The new counties are (1) Orange County in New York as part of the New York/New Jersey HIDTA; (2) Medocino County in California as part of the Northern California HIDTA; (3) Porter County in Indiana as part of the Lake County HIDTA; (4) Lexington and Richland Counties in South Carolina as part of the Atlanta HIDTA; (5) Harford County in Maryland as part of the Washington/ Baltimore HIDTA; (6) Putnam and Mercer Counties in West Virginia as part of the Appalachia HIDTA. SUMMARY: Please direct any questions to Travis Norvell, Policy Analyst, National HIDTA Program, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President, Washington, DC 20502; (202) 395–6789. sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Daniel R. Petersen, Deputy General Counsel. [FR Doc. 2011–18749 Filed 7–25–11; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3180–02–P VerDate Mar<15>2010 16:12 Jul 25, 2011 Jkt 223001 44613 PO 00000 Frm 00044 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 E:\FR\FM\26JYN1.SGM 26JYN1 44614 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 143 / Tuesday, July 26, 2011 / Notices sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES fixtures, and electronic equipment. For many of these incidental items, U.S. manufactured alternatives are not always readily or reasonably available. The miscellaneous character of these manufactured goods, together with their low individual cost, characterize them as items incidental to the project. Requiring individual exemptions for low cost, incidental items would be time prohibitive and overly burdensome for the awardee (University of Alaska, Fairbanks), subcontractor (shipyard) and for NSF. Such a de minimis exemption allows the award recipients to focus their efforts on the major manufactured goods within the ARRV project. The terms and conditions of the award still require UAF to Buy American to the extent practicable for items less than $10,000. Therefore, a limited projectspecific de minimis exemption for any such incidental item costing $10,000 or less used in and incorporated into the ARRV project is justified in the public interest. The Department of Energy has issued a similar type of de minimis exemption, relating to its Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy [75 FR 35447 (June 22, 2010)]. At this phase in the ARRV project, it is estimated that only $750,000 of incidental items will require use of the de minimis exemption. To ensure proper oversight with regard to use of this exemption within the project, the agency hereby establishes an allowable ceiling of $1.5M for the application of this de minimis exemption; this represents approximately 2.5% of the total value of materials used in the vessel. (Since the previously-granted exemptions for the purchase of ARRV equipment were not granted on this de minimis basis, but instead because there was not a domestic manufacturer of the qualifying equipment, those purchases do not fall within the $1.5M ceiling for the use of this de minimis exemption.) Issuance of this limited projectspecific exemption recognizes NSF’s commitment to expeditious spending of Recovery Act dollars balanced against the need for efficient implementation of the Recovery Act provision while still maintaining the Buy American requirements for manufactured goods that are greater than the de minimis amount of $10,000. III. Exemption On July 6, 2011, and under the authority of section 1605(b)(1) of the Public Law 111–5 and delegation order dated 27 May 2010, with respect to the Alaska Region Research Vessel Project funded by NSF, the NSF Chief Financial Officer granted a limited project exemption for any incidental item VerDate Mar<15>2010 16:12 Jul 25, 2011 Jkt 223001 costing $10,000 or less used in and incorporated into the project. With this exemption, the agency hereby establishes a $1.5M ceiling for the total allowable value of de minimis exemptions used on this project. Dated: July 7, 2011. Lawrence Rudolph, General Counsel. [FR Doc. 2011–18643 Filed 7–25–11; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7555–01–P NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [NRC–2011–0167] Biweekly Notice; Applications and Amendments to Facility Operating Licenses Involving No Significant Hazards Considerations Background Pursuant to Section 189a. (2) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission or NRC) is publishing this regular biweekly notice. The Act requires the Commission publish notice of any amendments issued, or proposed to be issued and grants the Commission the authority to issue and make immediately effective any amendment to an operating license upon a determination by the Commission that such amendment involves no significant hazards consideration, notwithstanding the pendency before the Commission of a request for a hearing from any person. This biweekly notice includes all notices of amendments issued, or proposed to be issued from June 30, 2011 to July 13, 2011. The last biweekly notice was published on July 12, 2011 (76 FR 40937). ADDRESSES: Please include Docket ID NRC–2011–0167 in the subject line of your comments. Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted on the NRC Web site and on the Federal rulemaking Web site https:// www.regulations.gov. Because your comments will not be edited to remove any identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions you against including any information in your submission that you do not want to be publicly disclosed. The NRC requests that any party soliciting or aggregating comments received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not include any information in PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 their comments that they do not want publicly disclosed. You may submit comments by any one of the following methods. • Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC–NRC–2011–0167. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher 301–492–3668; e-mail Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov. • Mail comments to: Chief, Rules, Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWB–05–B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555–0001. • Fax comments to: RADB at 301– 492–3446. You can access publicly available documents related to this notice using the following methods: • NRC’s Public Document Room (PDR): The public may examine and have copied, for a fee, publicly available documents at the NRC’s PDR, Room O1– F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. • NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC are accessible electronically through ADAMS in the NRC Library at https:// www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain entry into ADAMS, which provides text and image files of the NRC’s public documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC’s PDR reference staff at 1–800–397–4209, 301– 415–4737, or by e-mail to pdr.resource@nrc.gov. • Federal Rulemaking Web site: Public comments and supporting materials related to this notice can be found at https://www.regulations.gov by searching on Docket ID: NRC–2011– 0167. Notice of Consideration of Issuance of Amendments to Facility Operating Licenses, Proposed No Significant Hazards Consideration Determination, and Opportunity for a Hearing The Commission has made a proposed determination that the following amendment requests involve no significant hazards consideration. Under the Commission’s regulations in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), 50.92, this means that operation of the facility in accordance with the proposed amendment would not (1) Involve a significant increase in the probability or E:\FR\FM\26JYN1.SGM 26JYN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 143 (Tuesday, July 26, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44613-44614]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-18643]


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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Notice of Buy American Waiver Under the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act of 2009

AGENCY: National Science Foundation (NSF).

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: NSF is hereby granting a limited project-specific exemption of 
section 1605 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 
(Recovery Act), Public Law 111-5, 123 Stat. 115, 303 (2009), with 
respect to incidental items costing $10,000 or less used in and 
incorporated into the Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV) project.

DATES: July 26, 2011.

ADDRESSES: National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, 
Virginia 22230.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Jeffrey Leithead, Division of 
Acquisition and Cooperative Support, 703-292-4595.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with section 1605(c) of the 
Recovery Act and section 176.80 of Title 2 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations, the National Science Foundation (NSF) hereby provides 
notice that on July 6, 2011 the NSF Chief Financial Officer, in 
accordance with a delegation order from the Director of the agency on 
27 May 2010, granted a de minimis exemption of section 1605 of the 
Recovery Act (Buy American provision) with respect to each incidental 
item costing $10,000 or less that is used in and incorporated into the 
ARRV project. The basis for this exemption is section 1605(b)(1) of the 
Recovery Act, in that executing individual exemptions for incidental 
items costing $10,000 or less is not in the public interest. The total 
cost of incidental items requiring use of this limited exemption is 
expected to be less than $750,000, which represents less than 0.5% of 
the total Recovery Act award.

I. Background

    The Recovery Act appropriated $400 million to NSF for several 
projects being funded by the Foundation's Major Research Equipment and 
Facilities Construction (MREFC) account. The ARRV is one of NSF's MREFC 
projects. Section 1605(a) of the Recovery Act, the Buy American 
provision, states that none of the funds appropriated by the Act ``may 
be used for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or 
repair of a public building or public work unless all of the iron, 
steel, and manufactured goods used in the project are produced in the 
United States.''
    The ARRV has been developed under a cooperative agreement awarded 
to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) that began in 2007. UAF 
executed the shipyard contract in December 2009 and the project is 
currently under construction. The purpose of the Recovery Act is to 
stimulate economic recovery in part by funding current construction 
projects like the ARRV that are ``shovel ready'' without requiring 
projects to revise their standards and specifications, or to restart 
the bidding process.
    Subsections 1605(b) and (c) of the Recovery Act authorize the head 
of a Federal department or agency to waive the Buy American provision 
if the head of the agency finds that: (1) Applying the provision would 
be inconsistent with the public interest; (2) the relevant goods are 
not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably 
available quantities and of a satisfactory quality; or (3) the 
inclusion of the goods produced in the United States will increase the 
cost of the project by more than 25 percent. If the head of the Federal 
department or agency waives the Buy American provision, then the head 
of the department or agency is required to publish a detailed 
justification in the Federal Register.
    Finally, section 1605(d) of the Recovery Act states that the Buy 
American provision must be applied in a manner consistent with the 
United States' obligations under international agreements.
    NSF has previously granted exemptions for purchase of the bow 
thruster [75 FR 9256 (March 1, 2010)], anti-roll tank control system 
[76 FR 184 (January 3, 2011)], weather fax [76 FR 186 (January 3, 
2011)], ultrasonic antifouling system [76 FR 35920 (June 20, 2011)], 
and HVAC generators [76 FR 35919 (June 20, 2011)]; all of which were in 
excess of this $10,000 de minimus waiver and not produced in the United 
States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities.

II. Finding That Individual Exemptions for Incidental Items Are Not in 
the Public Interest

    Ship construction projects typically involve the use of literally 
hundreds of miscellaneous, generally low-cost items that are essential 
for, but incidental to, the construction of the vessel. These items are 
permanently incorporated into the physical structure and connected to 
other sub-systems in the ship and include such things as galley 
appliances, stateroom furnishings,

[[Page 44614]]

fixtures, and electronic equipment. For many of these incidental items, 
U.S. manufactured alternatives are not always readily or reasonably 
available. The miscellaneous character of these manufactured goods, 
together with their low individual cost, characterize them as items 
incidental to the project. Requiring individual exemptions for low 
cost, incidental items would be time prohibitive and overly burdensome 
for the awardee (University of Alaska, Fairbanks), subcontractor 
(shipyard) and for NSF. Such a de minimis exemption allows the award 
recipients to focus their efforts on the major manufactured goods 
within the ARRV project. The terms and conditions of the award still 
require UAF to Buy American to the extent practicable for items less 
than $10,000. Therefore, a limited project-specific de minimis 
exemption for any such incidental item costing $10,000 or less used in 
and incorporated into the ARRV project is justified in the public 
interest. The Department of Energy has issued a similar type of de 
minimis exemption, relating to its Office of Energy Efficiency and 
Renewable Energy [75 FR 35447 (June 22, 2010)].
    At this phase in the ARRV project, it is estimated that only 
$750,000 of incidental items will require use of the de minimis 
exemption. To ensure proper oversight with regard to use of this 
exemption within the project, the agency hereby establishes an 
allowable ceiling of $1.5M for the application of this de minimis 
exemption; this represents approximately 2.5% of the total value of 
materials used in the vessel. (Since the previously-granted exemptions 
for the purchase of ARRV equipment were not granted on this de minimis 
basis, but instead because there was not a domestic manufacturer of the 
qualifying equipment, those purchases do not fall within the $1.5M 
ceiling for the use of this de minimis exemption.)
    Issuance of this limited project-specific exemption recognizes 
NSF's commitment to expeditious spending of Recovery Act dollars 
balanced against the need for efficient implementation of the Recovery 
Act provision while still maintaining the Buy American requirements for 
manufactured goods that are greater than the de minimis amount of 
$10,000.

III. Exemption

    On July 6, 2011, and under the authority of section 1605(b)(1) of 
the Public Law 111-5 and delegation order dated 27 May 2010, with 
respect to the Alaska Region Research Vessel Project funded by NSF, the 
NSF Chief Financial Officer granted a limited project exemption for any 
incidental item costing $10,000 or less used in and incorporated into 
the project. With this exemption, the agency hereby establishes a $1.5M 
ceiling for the total allowable value of de minimis exemptions used on 
this project.

    Dated: July 7, 2011.
Lawrence Rudolph,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2011-18643 Filed 7-25-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P
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