Biden-Harris Administration publishes new rule discontinuing the Buy America Manufactured Products General Waiver in federal-aid highway projects to bolster domestic manufacturing and support American jobs
WASHINGTON- The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced a new final rule to end FHWA’s longstanding waiver that allows manufactured products used in federal-aid highway projects not to comply with FHWA’s Buy America requirements.
Since day one of the administration, President Biden and Vice President Harris have worked to make “Made in America” a reality. In his 2024 State of the Union address, the President announced the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic step to boost domestic manufacturing in transportation by proposing to discontinue a sweeping Reagan-era Buy America waiver for manufactured products in federal-aid highway projects, a significant loophole in Buy America. Today’s rule finalizes that proposal and ultimately will bolster our nation’s manufacturing and help create good-paying, American jobs that support the growth of domestic manufacturing.
The new federal rule changes outdated policy and boosts American manufacturing. The rule is a result of the FHWA’s review of its Manufactured Products General Waiver, required by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act.
“As we rebuild America’s infrastructure, we want federal highway projects to use domestically manufactured products that create good-paying jobs and promote private sector investment and small business opportunity,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The final rule we’re announcing today is right in line with the work the Biden-Harris Administration has done over the past four years to boost domestic manufacturing and support livelihoods right here in America.”
“This new rule reverses decades-old policy that effectively allowed the use of taxpayer dollars to purchase foreign products for U.S. transportation purposes,” said Acting Federal Highway Deputy Administrator Gloria M. Shepherd. “American businesses now have a unique opportunity to take advantage of the broader federal government market.”
The Buy America Requirements for Manufactured Products Final Rule ends the previous Manufactured Products General Waiver, a general applicability waiver in existence for more than four decades that waived FHWA’s Buy America requirement for manufactured products. The new rule aims to maximize the use of domestically produced manufactured products permanently incorporated in federal-aid highway and bridge projects.
The rule will be rolled out in two phases.
- For projects obligated on or after October 1, 2025, final assembly of all manufactured projects must occur in the U.S.
- For projects obligated on or after October 1, 2026, in addition to the final assembly requirement, the cost of components of products that are mined, produced, or manufactured in the U.S. must be greater than 55 percent of the total cost of all components of the manufactured product.
FHWA’s Buy America statute was enacted in 1983. At that time, FHWA determined that manufactured products were used in insufficient quantity on highway construction projects to incentivize domestic manufacturing, so there would be little benefit to applying the protections afforded under Buy America. With the enactment of the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, FHWA is aligning the Federal-aid Highway Program with the broader governmentwide standards.
By placing greater value on domestic manufacturing for highway construction, the new rule will encourage investment in this sector, protect and expand domestic manufacturing, increase reliance on U.S.-made products, and ensure that Federal-aid highway projects benefit from the broader domestic manufacturing base created by BABA for all Federal government programs.
The new rule does not change the Buy America requirements that currently apply to iron or steel products. For clarity, the new rule does provide definitions of iron or steel products and manufactured products to differentiate between products that must comply with FHWA’s existing Buy America requirements for iron and steel and products that must comply with FHWA’s new Buy America requirements for manufactured products.