The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently announced a notice of proposed rulemaking that would discontinue the general waiver of Buy America requirements for manufactured products used in federal-aid highway projects and create standards that would apply to manufactured products if the waiver is discontinued.
Enacted in 1983, the Buy America waiver was created to incentivize domestic manufacturing.
“For decades, America’s highway projects were allowed to use taxpayer dollars to purchase products manufactured in other countries, but the Biden-Harris administration is setting out to change that,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “As we rebuild America’s infrastructure, this new rule would require federal highway projects to use products manufactured here – in keeping with President Biden’s Investing in America agenda that has helped create 800,000 manufacturing jobs across the country.”
The proposal would eliminate the Manufactured Products General Waiver, a general applicability waiver that waived the Buy America requirement for manufactured products.
The proposals also asks for comment to outline standards for manufactured products covered under Buy America requirements. The requirements would be consistent with the Office of Management and Budget’s Build America, Buy America standards for manufactured products.
The proposed rule would not change Buy America requirements that currently apply to iron or steel products.