[Protest of DLA Rejection of Low Bid as Nonresponsive]

A firm protested the Defense Personnel Support Center's (DPSC) rejection of its low bid as nonresponsive. DPSC rejected the bid because the protester specified that it would not manufacture its products entirely in the United States. A solicitation specification, following the restrictions imposed by Department of Defense Appropriation Acts, limited the procurement to items manufactured wholly in the United States. The protester questioned the DPSC interpretation of the restriction and asserted that certain provisions of the Buy American Act, the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, and the Trade Agreements Act altered this restriction. However, GAO found that the provisions of the Buy American Act were irrelevant to this procurement, and the other two statutes failed to exempt the protester's product from the Department of Defense Appropriations Act restrictions. Furthermore, the protester alleged that the solicitation was deficient because it failed to include a standard clause. Bid protest procedures require that protests based upon alleged improprieties that are apparent on the face of a solicitation be filed before bid opening. Since this protest was not filed before that date, it was untimely and not for consideration. Accordingly, the protest was denied in part and dismissed in part.