Congress Pushes Stronger 'Buy American' Rules.

AuthorBozman, Jeff
PositionGovernment Contracting Insights

* Back in November, this column reported on several developments related to President Donald Trump's "Buy American" executive order, which set forth a policy to "maximize... use of goods, products and materials produced in the United States" through federal procurements.

Among other things, we discussed how Senate Democrats sought to "strengthen" the government's Buy American policies by proposing certain amendments to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. Although the majority of these amendments ultimately were left out of the bill, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have continued to push for action.

On Dec. 6, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., reintroduced the 21st Century Buy American Act (S.2196), which aimed to "strengthen" existing Buy American standards.

The legislation focused on five change areas.

First, the cost of components test for non-commercial-off-the-shelf items would be modified to require that an item's U.S. component costs exceed 60 percent of the item's total costs for the item to be deemed "domestic." The current threshold is 50 percent.

Second, the so-called "overseas exemption" regarding items procured for use outside the United States would be limited significantly.

Third, agencies would not be permitted to apply a public interest exception unless it considers the short-term and long-term effects of applying such exception on employment within the United States.

Fourth, a program to make or guarantee loans would be created for contractors seeking to manufacture certain items that are not currently manufactured in the United States.

Fifth, actions would be taken to increase transparency related to the use of exceptions.

The bill includes more detailed and robust requirements geared towards increasing transparency and providing more accountability for the use of exceptions. For example, the General Services Administration would be required to establish a public website (BuyAmerican.gov) that would provide information about exceptions "that have been requested, are under consideration, or have been granted," and certain information would need to be provided and made publicly available for comment before an exception could be granted.

On Jan. 9, Murphy--along with Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio--proposed the BuyAmerican.gov Act of 2018 (S.2284) to "strengthen" Buy American requirements.

Among other things, this bipartisan bill would recognize key components of the...

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