E.  Out-of-Scope Comments

Comments: One respondent presented recommendations for the elements on which the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should report annually in order to ensure compliance. These recommendations included mandatory reporting elements for each agency, department, and its contractors. The respondent asserted that there should be additional reporting required by DoD. The second respondent noted that section 9002(a)(4)(B) of the statute provides specific annual reporting requirements for the GSA and Defense Logistics Agency and queried why those agency reporting requirements were not addressed in the proposed rule.

Response: The FAR addresses requirements for contractors. OMB is responsible for determining agency reporting requirements. Therefore, these comments are outside the scope of this rule.

Comment: One respondent recommended that, in order to ensure full compliance, DoD should seek to update 100 percent of its specifications to include biobased products by December 31, 2013.

Response: The internal review of specifications by a particular agency is outside the scope of this rule.

Comment: One respondent recommended that a complete inventory management system needed to be created to track the biobased products purchased by all Federal agencies. The respondent stated that "(t)his scorecard should contain information on agencies and departments purchasing biobased products and contracts." According to the respondent, codifying the biobased products acquisition reporting structure in the FAR would lead to more market pull.

Response: The FAR addresses requirements for contractors. OMB is responsible for determining agency management and reporting requirements. Therefore, this recommendation is outside the scope of this rule.