ARTBA’s Views on “Build America, Buy America” Provisions

Overview

Excerpt from a letter to the Office of Management & Budget May 14, 2022

• ARTBA supports Buy America protection for a core list of covered materials that are permanently incorporated into transportation projects and which have been regularly enumerated by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA).
• ARTBA supports a common sense interpretation of the Buy America rule so that the burden of compliance on transportation construction contractors does not lead to the likelihood of project cost increases and delays.
• ARTBA supports efforts by FHWA, FTA and other federal transportation agencies to develop nationwide waivers that would exempt commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products due to the burden of traceability of component materials in these products and their de minimis financial impact to total project value.
• Ideally, compliance with Buy America begins with a project design that has effectively vetted the specified materials to confirm that the covered materials and manufactured products are produced and available in the United States.
• ARTBA supports FHWA and FTA policy modifications that would require designers and specifiers of transportation projects to assess the availability of materials to be incorporated into the project and make all reasonable efforts to use available Buy America-qualified materials as the basis of design.