Sec. 847. Sense of Congress on procurement of fire hoses
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The General Services Administration has historically procured specialized fire hoses designed for combating wildfires used by the Forest Service. A memorandum of agreement was signed on February 5, 2014, by the Administrator of General Services and the Director of the Defense Logistics Agency designating the Defense Logistics Agency as the integrated material manager and source of supply for such fire hoses. While the intent of this agreement was to secure efficiencies in procurement and cost savings for the Government, the transfer of procurement authority to the Department of Defense had the unintentional effect of requiring all suppliers of such fire hoses to comply with the domestic sourcing requirements of section 2533a of title 10, United States Code, also known as the Berry Amendment.
There is currently only one known provider of such fire hoses and that provider is not fully compliant with the domestic sourcing requirements of the Berry Amendment. As a result of the designation of the Defense Logistic Agency as the integrated material manager for the procurement of such fire hoses and the new requirement for compliance with the Berry Amendment, the Forest Service does not anticipate the ability to procure the necessary number of fire hoses before the fire season begins in early June and is currently facing a shortfall of 56,000 hoses out of the 93,000 required.
According to the Chief of the Forest Service, this shortfall represents a critical risk to a number of States that are likely to experience a season of above average wildfire activity. During the period of May 1, 2014, through May 5, 2015, less than 9 percent of quantities of such hoses purchased by the Defense Logistics Agency were procured for the purposes of the Department of Defense. Based on the findings in subsection (a), it is the sense of Congress that procurement authority for specialized fire hoses for the United States Forest Service should be reestablished as an activity of the General Services Administration.