On January 14, 2025, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced the end of its general waiver of Buy America requirements for manufactured products. The new FHWA rule aligns the FHWA requirements for manufactured products incorporated into federal highway projects with the domestic content standards of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA).
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Pub. L. No. 117-58, which includes the Build America, Buy America Act (“BABA”), was signed into law by President Biden on November 15, 2021. BABA provisions apply to all Federal financial assistance awards (e.g., grants, cooperative agreements, non-cash contributions or donations, direct assistance and loans) that will be used to fund a portion or all of the construction, alteration, maintenance or repair of infrastructure in the United States.
A proposed amendment to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (“FAR”) published on July 30, 2021 will “strengthen the impact of the Buy American Act” (“BAA”) over the next eight years, according to the Federal Register notice. Federal contractors and subcontractors were put on notice of coming proposed changes in January when President Biden issued Executive Order (“EO”) 14005 revoking or superseding multiple EOs issued by the Trump Administration. The Proposed Rule arising from Section 8 of EO 14005 would alter and build upon existing requirements of the BAA. The Proposed Rule includes immediately higher domestic content thresholds that will increase over time, price preference enhancements for “critical” items, and contractor reporting of domestic content within 15 days of an award to the newly created Made in America Office of the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”). The new proposed Buy American restrictions will not apply to acquisitions subject to various trade agreements under the Trade Agreements Act.
In March, we wrote about how we still were awaiting guidance from the White House about how the Made in America Office’s waiver process would work under President Biden’s January 25, 2021 EO 14005, Ensuring the Future is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers. This month, the White House released its initial guidance on the new waiver process, identifying four main areas of implementation:
It has been two months since President Biden issued his Buy American Executive Order on January 25, 2021. But it would seem we still have more questions than answers: What specific actions will agencies take to promote the Order’s policy? What will the Made in America Office look like? Where can I find more information about proposed waivers? While the answers to these questions are probably still months away, it is important for contractors to understand the possible implications now and plan accordingly.
Sorting through domestic preference requirements applicable to government contracts is no simple task. Different agencies like the DOD, FTA, FAA, FHWA, have their own rules applicable to certain programs. Exceptions from those rules can differ when a small business is making the offer. And the rules are subject to change. With the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s (“Federal Circuit”) decision in Acetris Health LLC v. United States (Fed. Cir. 2/10/2020), the situation is now a little more complicated. The same product may be “U.S. made” for government contracts purposes but considered foreign origin for customs and international trade purposes which triggers US customs duties and tariffs.
On July 15, 2019, President Trump signed Executive Order 13881 addressing domestic preferences in government procurement. Unlike Executive Order 13788 (April 18, 2017) and Executive Order 13858 (Jan. 31, 2019), which had no substantive effect on existing domestic preference statutes and regulations, this one does.
EO 13881 calls for the FAR Council to make two significant changes to FAR clauses implementing the Buy American Act. The first increases the domestic content requirements for items to comply with the Buy American Act. The second increases the price preference for domestic products.
Under the Christian Doctrine, prime contractors face the risk of having a court or a board of contract appeals read a clause into their contracts, even if it was omitted from the contract that they signed. In this entry we discuss whether the Christian Doctrine applies to subcontractors.
The Christian Doctrine is almost certainly inapplicable to subcontractors. For the reasons why, consider the decision in Energy Labs, Inc. v. Edwards Engineering, Inc., (N.D. Ill. June 2, 2015). A subcontractor contracted to manufacture and deliver HVAC systems for the Chicago Transit Authority. In its own contract, the prime contractor certified that the HVAC system would comply with the Buy America Act. But the prime contractor failed to flow the requirement down to the HVAC manufacturer, which planned to manufacture the units in Mexico. After learning that the plan to manufacture the units in Mexico would not meet the Buy America requirement, the prime contractor canceled the order and purchased the units from another manufacturer.
The original manufacturer sued for breach of contract. In its motion to dismiss, the prime contractor made two arguments. The subcontract was “illegal” because it omitted the Buy America requirement. Or it was legal only because the Christian Doctrine meant that the Buy America requirement was read into the subcontract by operation of law. The court rejected both arguments. There was nothing “illegal” about the prime’s failure to include a Buy America requirement in the subcontract. And there was no basis to read the requirement into the subcontract through the Christian Doctrine. “The Christian doctrine . . . was intended to apply to contracts between the federal government and government contractors, not to subcontracts.”
This result is consistent with our experience.
President Trump’s April 18, 2017 Executive Order announces that it is “the policy of the executive branch to buy American and hire American.” It demands that federal agencies enforce and comply with all current “Buy American Laws.”
There is nothing remarkable about that. New policy initiatives and statutory changes will come later, presumably with the input of the affected agencies. The Order requires federal agencies to assess and monitor their enforcement and implementation of existing Buy American Laws, including their use of waivers and the impact waivers may have on jobs and manufacturing. Based on the 150-day deadline in the Order, the agency reports are due by September 15, 2017.
The most controversial and most significant changes resulting from President Trump’s Order are likely to come as a result of changes to existing trade agreements. The President’s Order requires the Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative to assess the impact of all United States free trade agreements and the WTO Government Procurement Agreement. By November 24, 2017, they are to submit a report to the President containing “specific recommendations to strengthen implementation of Buy American Laws.”
In a Presidential Memorandum issued January 24, 2017, President Trump directed the Secretary of Commerce to develop a plan within 180 days to require that pipelines in the United States use materials and equipment produced in the United States “to the maximum extent possible and to the extent permitted by law.” The plan will extend to newly constructed pipelines as well as to those that are “retrofitted, repaired and expanded . . . inside the borders of the United States.”
With respect to iron or steel products, the Memorandum makes it clear that all stages of the manufacturing process must occur in the United States. The Memorandum states:
“Produced in the United States” shall mean:
(i) With regard to iron or steel products, that all manufacturing processes for such iron or steel products, from the initial melting stage through the application of coatings, occurred in the United States.
(ii) Steel or iron material or products manufactured abroad from semi-finished steel or iron from the United States are not “produced in the United States” for purposes of this memorandum.
(iii) Steel or iron material or products manufactured in the United States from semi-finished steel or iron of foreign origin are not “produced in the United States” for purposes of this memorandum.
The notions that iron and steel products must be manufactured in the United States and that all of the manufacturing processes must occur in the United States are not new. Substantially similar requirements are used in the “Buy America” provision of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982. See 49 U.S.C. § 5323(j). The Federal Transit Administration and the Federal Highway Administration have used this approach for state and local highway and transit projects funded wholly or partially with federal funds. See, e.g., 49 C.F.R. § 661.5.