On Monday, July 15, President Donald J. Trump signed his latest Executive Order aimed at maximizing the use of American-made goods, products, and materials in federal procurement. Executive Order 13881 directs the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council to consider strengthening standards applied to the 1933 Buy American Act (BAA)[1], which covers direct federal
Trump Signs Executive Order to Strengthen Buy American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects
On January 31, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 13858 entitled Strengthening Buy American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects. The Order is designed to strengthen the “Buy American principle” for Federal infrastructure spending by encouraging Federal funding recipients to use more American-made products in their infrastructure projects. “By signing this order today, we renew our commitment to an essential truth: It matters where something is made, and it matters very greatly,” said President Trump.
Specifically, the order directs the head of each executive department and agency administering a covered infrastructure program to “encourage recipients of new Federal financial assistance awards to use, to the greatest extent practicable, iron and aluminum as well as, steel, cement, and other manufactured products produced in the United States in every contract, subcontract, purchase order, or sub award that is chargeable against such Federal financial assistance award.” Covered programs include Federal financial assistance for a wide variety of U.S. infrastructure projects, from surface transportation and water infrastructure to broadband and cyber-security.
In addition to encouraging funding recipients to use domestic products in their projects, the new order also requires the head of each agency administering a covered program to identify in a report to the President opportunities to maximize the use of Buy American principles. The reports are due no later than May 31, 2019.
Thursday’s action is an attempt to close potential coverage gaps by extending Buy American principles to more taxpayer-financed federal infrastructure assistance programs. The executive order similarly seeks to expand the application of the Buy America procurement preferences to items not typically subject to existing Buy America laws, which are often limited to iron and steel products and materials. The “manufactured products” specifically identified in the executive order include non-ferrous metals, plastic and polymer materials like pipe, aggregates, glass and lumber.
The White House indicated this strengthened focus could result in billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars being redirected to American manufacturers.
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Commerce and OMB Issue ‘Buy American’ Guidance to Federal Agencies
On Friday June 30, Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, and Director of OMB, Mick Mulvaney, released a memorandum providing guidance to executive departments and agencies that must, pursuant to the directives of President Trump’s April 18th Executive Order entitled “Buy American and Hire American,” undertake an analysis of their administration of applicable Buy American laws.
The memo directs agency chiefs to submit to the Commerce Department and OMB a report that details their assessment of the implementation of Buy American Laws within their agencies by September 15th in compliance with the executive order’s section 3.
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