(a) Nonprofit agencies and central nonprofit agencies are encouraged to recommend changes to specification requirements or request waivers where there are opportunities to provide equal or improved products at a lower cost to the Government.

(b) A nonprofit agency shall not request a waiver of a specification requirement except when it is not possible to obtain the material meeting the specification or when other requirements contained in the specification cannot be met.

(c) Requests for waiver of specification shall be transmitted by the nonprofit agency to its central nonprofit agency.

(d) The central nonprofit agency shall review the request and the specification to determine if the request is valid and shall submit to the contracting activity only those requests which it has determined are necessary to enable the nonprofit agency to furnish the item.

(e) The central nonprofit agency request for waiver shall be transmitted in writing to the contracting activity. In addition, a copy of the request shall be transmitted to the Committee, annotated to include a statement concerning the impact on the cost of producing the item if the waiver is approved.