- The Biden administration is increasing how much of a government product has to be “made in America.”
- Under current rules, a product is considered American made if 55% of the parts came from the U.S.
- Under the proposal, the minimum would gradually increase to 75%.
WASHINGTON – Products the federal government buys would need a higher share of U.S. parts to qualify as “made in America” under new rules the Biden administration will propose Wednesday.
President Joe Biden is expected to promote the changes during a visit to Pennsylvania where he will be tour a Mack Trucks facility and meet with United Auto Worker members.
The federal fleets include more than 1,500 Mack trucks.
“This is all a part of his effort to lift up and talk about his `Buy American’ agenda as well as the infrastructure package,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
While current rules require 55% of a product, such as a government vehicle, to have been made in America, Biden wants to immediately raise that to 60%. The threshold would increase to 75% by 2029, according to administration officials who provided the information on condition of anonymity.
The officials described those, and other changes included in the proposal being released for a 60-day public comment period, as the biggest update to the Buy American Act statute in nearly 70 years.
Shortly after taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders that were intended to strengthen rules requiring federal agencies to buy U.S.-made goods when possible. But critics argued that effort fell short, partly because of Trump’s failure to adequately enforce the rules.
The federal government spends nearly $600 billion a year on contracts, nearly half of which goes toward manufactured products – from helicopter blades to trucks to office furniture.
Biden, who pushed a $700 billion Buy American campaign as a candidate for president, signed his own executive order during his first week in office to steer more federal dollars to U.S. manufacturers.
The proposed changes fill in the details on that directive.
In addition to increasing the domestic content threshold, the updated requirements would also make it harder for manufacturers to get a waiver from the rules.
Manufacturers of “critical products” would also have to specify the total domestic content in their product, rather than simply certifying that they’ve met the threshold.
Price preferences would be given to products considered crucial to national and economic security to lessen the dependence on foreign sources.
Officials said the changes are just the start of improvements the administration wants to make to the federal procurement process.
