2004 US Code
Title 41 - PUBLIC CONTRACTS
CHAPTER 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 10d - Clarification of Congressional intent regarding sections 10a and 10b(a)

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§10d. Clarification of Congressional intent regarding sections 10a and 10b(a)

In order to clarify the original intent of Congress, hereafter, section 10a of this title and that part of section 10b(a) of this title preceding the words “Provided, however,” shall be regarded as requiring the purchase, for public use within the United States, of articles, materials, or supplies manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities and of a satisfactory quality, unless the head of the department or independent establishment concerned shall determine their purchase to be inconsistent with the public interest or their cost to be unreasonable.

(Oct. 29, 1949, ch. 787, title VI, §633, 63 Stat. 1024; Pub. L. 100–418, title VII, §7005(d), Aug. 23, 1988, 102 Stat. 1553.)

Amendments

1988—Pub. L. 100–418, §§7004, 7005(d), temporarily substituted “Federal agency” for “department or independent establishment”. See Termination Date of 1988 Amendment note below.

Termination Date of 1988 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 100–418 to cease to be effective on Apr. 30, 1996, unless Congress, after reviewing report required by former section 2515(k) of Title 19, Customs Duties, extends such date, see section 7004 of Pub. L. 100–418, set out as an Effective and Termination Dates of 1988 Amendment note under section 10a of this title.

Ex. Ord. No. 10582. Uniform Procedures for Determinations

Ex. Ord. No. 10582, Dec. 17, 1954, 19 F.R. 8723, as amended by Ex. Ord. No. 11051, Sept. 27, 1962, 27 F.R. 9683; Ex. Ord. No. 12148, July 20, 1979, 44 F.R. 43239; Ex. Ord. No. 12608, Sept. 9, 1987, 52 F.R. 34617, provided:

Section 1. As used in this order, (a) the term “materials” includes articles and supplies, (b) the term “executive agency” includes executive department, independent establishment, and other instrumentality of the executive branch of the Government, and (c) the term “bid or offered price of materials of foreign origin” means the bid or offered price of such materials delivered at the place specified in the invitation to bid including applicable duty and all costs incurred after arrival in the United States.

Sec. 2. (a) For the purposes of this order materials shall be considered to be of foreign origin if the cost of the foreign products used in such materials constitutes fifty per centum or more of the cost of all the products used in such materials.

(b) For the purposes of the said act of March 3, 1933 [see Tables for classification], and the other laws referred to in the first paragraph of the preamble of this order, the bid or offered price of materials of domestic origin shall be deemed to be unreasonable, or the purchase of such materials shall be deemed to be inconsistent with the public interest, if the bid or offered price thereof exceeds the sum of the bid or offered price of like materials of foreign origin and a differential computed as provided in subsection (c) of this section.

(c) The executive agency concerned shall in each instance determine the amount of the differential referred to in subsection (b) of this section on the basis of one of the following-described formulas, subject to the terms thereof:

(1) The sum determined by computing six per centum of the bid or offered price of materials of foreign origin.

(2) The sum determined by computing ten per centum of the bid or offered price of materials of foreign origin exclusive of applicable duty and all costs incurred after arrival in the United States: provided that when the bid or offered price of materials of foreign origin amounts to less than ,000, the sum shall be determined by computing ten per centum of such price exclusive only of applicable duty.

Sec. 3. Nothing in this order shall affect the authority or responsibility of an executive agency:

(a) To reject any bid or offer for reasons of the national interest not described or referred to in this order; or

(b) To place a fair proportion of the total purchases with small business concerns in accordance with section 302(b) of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended [41 U.S.C. 252(b)], section 2(b) of the Armed Services Procurement Act of 1947, as amended [41 U.S.C. 151(b)], and section 202 of the Small Business Act of 1953 [15 U.S.C. 631]; or

(c) To reject a bid or offer to furnish material of foreign origin in any situation in which the domestic supplier offering the lowest price for furnishing the desired materials undertakes to produce substantially all of such materials in areas of substantial unemployment, as determined by the Secretary of Labor in accordance with such appropriate regulations as he may establish and during such period as the President may determine that it is in the national interest to provide to such areas preference in the award of Government contracts: Provided, that nothing in this section shall prevent the rejection of a bid or offered price which is excessive; or

(d) To reject any bid or offer for materials of foreign origin if such rejection is necessary to protect essential national-security interests after receiving advice with respect thereto from the President or from the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In providing this advice the Director shall be governed by the principle that exceptions under this section shall be made only upon a clear showing that the payment of a greater differential than the procedures of this section generally prescribe is justified by consideration of national security.

Sec. 4. The head of each executive agency shall issue such regulations as may be necessary to insure that procurement practices under his jurisdiction conform to the provisions of this order.

Sec. 5. This order shall apply only to contracts entered into after the date hereof. In any case in which the head of an executive agency proposing to purchase domestic materials determines that a greater differential than that provided in this order between the cost of such materials of domestic origin and materials of foreign origin is not unreasonable or that the purchase of materials of domestic origin is not inconsistent with the public interest, this order shall not apply. A written report of the facts of each case in which such a determination is made shall be submitted to the President through the Director of the Office of Management and Budget by the official making the determination within 30 days thereafter.