[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 123 (Monday, June 28, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36646-36647]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-15657]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Notice of a Waiver of Section 1605 of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for Indian River Central School
District, Philadelphia, New York
SUMMARY: In this notice, the Department of Education (the Department)
announces its waiver of the Buy American requirements in section
1605(a) of the ARRA (Buy American Requirements) for the Indian River
Central School District in Philadelphia, New York (Indian River
District) and the justification for this waiver. This waiver permits
use of compatible telephones, servers, and software as well as American
Power Conversion (APC) power supply and surge suppression equipment in
the Indian River District's telecommunications project, which is
supported with Impact Aid funds appropriated under the ARRA.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department provided the Indian River
District with an Impact Aid ARRA formula grant for school construction
activities authorized under section 8007(a) of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended. The Indian River District
proposes to use these funds for a telecommunications infrastructure
investment, but reports that the particular telecommunication and power
supply components needed for this construction project are not produced
in the United States.
In accordance with section 1605(c) of the ARRA, the Department
hereby provides notice that it is granting a waiver of the Buy American
Requirements for the Indian River District's telecommunications
project. This notice constitutes the detailed
[[Page 36647]]
written justification that the Department is required to publish in
instances when it grants such a waiver pursuant to section 1605(b) of
the ARRA.
Section 1605(a) of the ARRA requires that none of the appropriated
funds be used 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 ARRA further provides that this requirement does not apply,
and that a waiver may be granted, when the head of the Federal
department or agency involved finds that: (1) Applying these
requirements would be inconsistent with the public interest; (2) iron,
steel, and relevant manufactured goods are not produced in the United
States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a
satisfactory quality; or (3) inclusion of iron, steel, and relevant
manufactured goods produced in the United States will increase the
overall cost of the project by more than 25 percent.
The district seeks a waiver based on the fact that the
telecommunications upgrade will provide the necessary support to
provide a reliable flow of products and services essential to the
smooth functioning of government at the local level. The project would
completely replace the current telecommunications infrastructure for
six buildings within the school district, and make it consistent with a
single Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system that has already been
installed in the district's other three facilities. One problem with
the current infrastructure is that there are four different systems
installed in the various buildings, which has contributed to
incompatible systems and ineffective communications. As a result, the
district determined that it is essential that all of it buildings
should share a single, state-of-the-art system.
The district reported that the existing VoIP system comprises Cisco
telephones, servers, and software as well as American Power Conversion
(APC) power supply and surge suppression equipment. While both Cisco
and APC are American firms that provide the bulk of the equipment and
software in the U.S., the products themselves are manufactured in China
and India. In order to remain technologically consistent with the
district facilities that were updated with other resources and use
materials of comparable satisfactory quality, the school district would
need to use the same products in the proposed project.
The Secretary has determined that a section 1605(b) waiver of the
Buy American Requirements is appropriate for the Indian River
District's telecommunications project because, based on information
provided by the Indian River District as well the Department's own
research, the particular telecommunications and power supply components
needed for this project are not manufactured in the United States. The
Department bases this determination on information provided by the
Indian River District as well as its own research. The Indian River
District has provided information to the Department documenting that
there are no Cisco telephones, servers, and software or APC power
supply and surge suppression equipment manufactured in the United
States. In addition, based on the Department's own research (Internet
product literature searches) and to the best of the Department's
knowledge at the time of its review of the Indian River District's
waiver request, there do not appear to be U.S.-manufactured Cisco
telephones, servers, and software or APC power supply and surge
suppression equipment available to the Indian River District for the
ARRA-funded telecommunications project.
Furthermore, the purpose of the ARRA is to stimulate economic
recovery, in part, by funding current infrastructure construction, and
not to delay projects that are ``shovel ready'' by requiring the
revision of standards and specifications or a new bidding process. The
imposition of the Buy American Requirements on such otherwise eligible
projects would result in requiring the district to abandon a VoIP
system that it already had purchased and installed in three facilities
or requiring it to install possibly incompatible technology in the six
remaining facilities. Either alternative is inconsistent with the
public interest. In addition, imposing Buy American requirements for
this project at this point would also result in an unreasonable delay,
and to further delay construction would be in direct conflict with a
fundamental economic purpose of the ARRA, which is to create or retain
jobs.
The Department has reviewed the Indian River District's waiver
request and has determined that the supporting documentation is
sufficient to demonstrate that a waiver is justified under section
1605(b) of the ARRA. Having established both a proper basis to specify
the particular goods required for this project, and that these
compatible manufactured goods are not available from a producer in the
United States, the Indian River District is hereby granted a waiver
from the Buy American Requirements reflected in section 1605(a) of the
ARRA for the installation of the telecommunication and power supply
components of compatible telecommunications infrastructure (including
telephones, servers, and software) in all of the district's school
facilities using ARRA funds as specified in the Indian River District's
request.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kristen Walls-Rivas, Impact Aid
Program, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202) 260-1357 or via Internet:
[email protected].
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), call the
Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-800-877-8339. Individuals
with disabilities can obtain this document in an accessible format
(e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer diskette) on
request to the program contact person listed in this section.
Electronic Access to This Document: You may view this document, as
well as all other documents of this Department published in the Federal
Register, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on the
Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister. To
use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at
this site.
Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.
Authority: Section 1605 of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act, Public Law 111-5.
Dated: June 23, 2010.
Arne Duncan,
Secretary of Education.
[FR Doc. 2010-15657 Filed 6-25-10; 8:45 am]
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