Agencies look abroad for rabbit fur, cobra venom

What do rabbit fur, cobra venom and swords have in common? They're all on the short list of items the federal government has difficulty buying in the United States.

The list of items, which are exempt from the 1933 Buy American Act that requires agencies to purchase from domestic sources, is printed in the Federal Acquisition Regulation and reviewed annually. If an agency wants to purchase something on the list, it must confirm that it can't buy the item domestically before it can make the purchase abroad.

Most of the demand for these items can be traced to the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, which bought $12.4 billion worth of supplies in 2004 for the Defense Department.

Until recently, rabbit fur was used to trim the hoods of military parkas for personnel stationed in Alaska and other cold locations, said Sean Bamford, assistant counsel at DSCP. Now, a synthetic fiber is used instead because it's easier to control.

But rabbit fur will stay on the list "just in case" a service wants it, Bamford said. He added, "We may have replaced the rabbit fur with something else, but tomorrow, say the Navy introduces an item and they want rabbit fur?"

While rabbits are plentiful in the U.S., lush rabbit fur is not, according to Pentagon documents. "Domestic fur felt is thin and inferior and used only in stuffed toys. It does not meet the quality requirements for service hats," stated a 1984 Defense Acquisition Regulation case. At the time, Defense bought 11,000 rabbit fur felt service hats for the armed services annually.

Swords and scabbards, which are sword sheaths, are used as part of military dress uniforms and by the U.S. Olympic fencing team, which the military supports, said David Drabkin, deputy chief acquisition officer at the General Services Administration. GSA is responsible for the Federal Acquisition Regulations along with Defense and NASA.

Bamford said DSCP periodically searches for domestic sword producers, but has yet to find any that meet the Pentagon's standards.

The list was last updated in June 2004, when bamboo shoots, goat hair canvas, canned grapefruit sections, synthetic fur ruff and water chestnuts were added. Also on the list are cobra venom, asbestos, diamonds and opium.

An Office of Management and Budget official emphasized that the inclusion of an item on the list doesn't mean the government is encouraging agencies to buy these items, and that many are not final products, but rather components of final products.

Many food items, which are shipped all around the world for consumption in military mess halls, are included on the list. Canned grapefruit sections were added last year because while fresh grapefruits grown in the U.S., they are not canned domestically, said Bamford.

"Out of curiosity, I personally checked several grocery stores to check out the canned grapefruit, and was surprised to find that all the canned grapefruit was either the product of Mexico or Israel," said Amy Williams, case manager for the Defense Acquisition Regulations System, which shares responsibility for FAR.

"The economics of the manual labor involved in peeling and sectioning grapefruit is prohibitive to domestic packers," she said.

At least one domestic grapefruit grower wasn't surprised to find canned grapefruit on the list of hard-to-find items, and said even fresh grapefruit is hard to supply in the U.S.

"Agricultural property has gotten so valuable that all the citrus growers are starting to let the groves go and turn them into real estate," said Vance Temple, owner of Temple Fruit, a grapefruit company in Florida's Indian River County. He's in the midst of switching to lychees, an exotic fruit that he hopes will be more lucrative.

Not all suppliers are willing to accept that their products' designation is exempt from the Buy American Act, however.

After Defense, GSA and NASA asked for comments on the list last May, Anibal Acevedo Vila, governor of Puerto Rico, requested the removal of raw or green bean coffee from the list of items exempted from the Buy American Act in order to encourage agencies to buy from the territory. "The coffee producers of Puerto Rico can provide American-grown coffee beans for procurement for public use… I think it is important that we support domestic producers and that we Buy American first," he wrote.

He noted that coffee has been grown in Puerto Rico since the early 1700s in mountains shaded by citrus trees, and that removing green coffee from the list would boost the business of local farmers who sell raw, green coffee beans. After an investigation, the federal government concluded that Puerto Rican farmers couldn't produce more than 50 percent of the government's demand for green coffee beans, which is required for the item to be removed from the list.

Williams said Defense, GSA and NASA publish the list of items exempted from the Buy American Act at least once every five years and accept suggestions for items that should be deleted any time.

Bamford said while the items listed are exempted from the Buy American Act, DCSP prefers to find domestic sources. "We're much in favor of domestic sources. It makes our job easier," he said, referring to the market research and extra purchasing work that his agency has to do to purchase from foreign sources. If DCSP finds a domestic producer for swords, for example, it can save time and money by buying from it.

In order to find domestic producers and educate them about how to sell to the government, DCSP holds an annual conference for suppliers and federal program managers on exemptions to the Buy American Act. Bamford said he expects producers to discuss glove availability at this year's conference, to be held in May.

Andrew Mohr, a partner at Cohen Mohr LLP and government contracting law expert, said older technology will be eventually be on the list of items that the government will have difficulty purchasing domestically. While modern technology is sold by U.S. companies, items like closed circuit televisions, which the government still uses, may be available only through Chinese companies.

"You tend to offshore...older technology items," he said. He also noted that many items were added 30 years ago and are no longer used by the government.

Carl DeMaio, president of the Performance Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based think tank, said he would like to see the list disappear altogether. "The government needs to move away from one size fits all in terms of mandates, allowable and disallowable items," he said, adding that contracting officials should deal with purchases on a case-by-case basis.

But Drabkin said this was unlikely to happen. This list, he said, is "for easy administration, so we're all on the same sheet of music."