U.S. Department of Homeland Security 

Washington, DC 20472 

July 23, 2023 

Re: Public Interest: Minor Components of Iron and Steel Products General Applicability 

Waiver of Section 70914(a) of P.L. 117-58, Build America, Buy America Act, 2021 for 

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Financial Assistance Awards 

AGENCY: Grant Programs Directorate, FEMA 

ACTION: Notice 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA), this notice 

advises that FEMA grants a general applicability waiver to the Buy America Domestic Content 

Procurement Preference (“Buy America preference”) as applied to minor components within 

an iron and steel product. This waiver will permit FEMA federal financial assistance for 

infrastructure projects to use non-domestically produced miscellaneous iron and steel minor 

components comprising no more than five percent of the total material cost of an otherwise 

domestically produced iron and steel product. This waiver does not exempt the whole iron and 

steel product from the BABAA requirement, and the primary iron and steel components of the 

product must be produced domestically. 

DATES: This waiver is effective upon approval date, which is July 23, 2023, and will remain 

in effect for all awards or funding obligated to recipients and subrecipients of FEMA federal 

financial assistance infrastructure projects for five years from the approval date. As FEMA 

develops efficient waiver review capabilities, FEMA will review this waiver within five years of 

the date on which the waiver was issued or more often as appropriate to determine its continued 

utility, applicability and relevance with FEMA’s missions and goals consistent with the 

Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (IIJA), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
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Memorandum M-22-11, Initial Implementation Guidance on Application of Buy America 

Preference in Federal Financial Assistance Programs for Infrastructure. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Build America, Buy America 

The Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA) was enacted on November 15, 2021, 

as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Pub. L. 117-58. BABAA 

establishes a domestic content procurement preference, the Buy America preference, for 

federal infrastructure programs. Section 70914(a) of BABAA establishes that no later than 180 

days after the date of enactment, FEMA must ensure that none of the funds made available for 

infrastructure projects may be obligated by FEMA unless it has taken steps to ensure that the 

iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials used in a project are produced in 

the United States. In section 70912, BABAA further defines a project to include “the 

construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of infrastructure in the United States” and 

includes within the definition of infrastructure those items traditionally included along with 

buildings and real property. 

II. Waivers 

Under section 70914(b), FEMA has authority to waive the application of a domestic content 

procurement preference when (1) application of the preference would be contrary to the public 

interest, (2) the materials and products subject to the preference are not produced in the United 

States at a sufficient and reasonably available quantity or satisfactory quality, or (3) inclusion 

of domestically produced materials and products would increase the cost of the overall project 

by more than 25 percent. Section 70914(c) provides that a waiver under 70914(b) must be 

published by the Agency with a detailed written explanation for the proposed determination 
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and provide a public comment period of not less than 15 days. Information on this waiver may 

be found on FEMA’s website at: https://www.fema.gov/grants/policy-guidance/buy-america. 

III. Public Interest in a General Applicability Waiver of Buy America Provisions for 

Minor Components 

The purpose of this waiver is to permit FEMA federal financial assistance for 

infrastructure projects to use non-domestically produced miscellaneous iron and steel minor 

components comprising no more than five percent of the total material cost of an otherwise 

domestically produced iron and steel product. This waiver would not exempt the whole iron 

and steel product from the BABAA requirement, and the primary iron and steel components 

of the product must be produced domestically. 

The purpose of this waiver is to reduce the administrative burden to iron and steel 

manufacturers who have reported significant compliance challenges for products that are 

otherwise domestically produced but contain miscellaneous iron and steel minor components, 

the origin of which cannot be reliably tracked or determined. Due to these challenges, 

communities receiving FEMA financial assistance are generally unable to obtain a range of 

BABAA-compliant iron and steel products that contain 100 percent domestic components. 

Absent this waiver, these communities would incur a significant administrative burden 

attempting to source these products and, if unavailable, pursuing project-specific waivers. 

This waiver would allow manufacturers of iron and steel products to utilize a small 

portion (up to five percent by product material cost) of nondomestic or unknown origin iron 

and steel minor components within their otherwise domestically manufactured iron and steel 

products. Manufacturers typically purchase these low-cost, miscellaneous minor components 

in bulk and, absent this waiver, would incur excessive costs associated with establishing and 

managing duplicative inventories for production lines. Minor components are not the specific 
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parts purchased to be assembled at a project, but the components of a product which comprise 

no more than five percent of the total material cost of an otherwise domestically produced 

iron and steel product as sold by that manufacturer. 

This Minor Components waiver will reduce administrative burden on manufacturers 

and ensure that their iron and steel products comply with Build America, Buy America even if 

that product includes a minor amount of iron or steel, or an iron or steel component that is of 

nondomestic or unknown origin 

The BABAA requirements apply to 23 FEMA financial assistance programs. FEMA 

award recipients are anticipated to receive more than $4.1 billion with fiscal year 2022 

funding through the Agency’s programs where infrastructure is an eligible activity and may 

be subject to the Buy America preference. FEMA only anticipates this waiver being used for a 

subset of iron and steel products by product manufacturers. 

FEMA consulted with iron and steel manufacturers regarding the need for, and scope of 

a potential minor component waiver for iron and steel products. Based on feedback provided 

by industry stakeholders, the five percent threshold for minor components is reasonable and 

aligns with BABAA minor components waivers across other federal agencies, including the 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Department of Agriculture 

(USDA). Manufactures stressed the importance of consistency across federal agencies, which 

keeps costs down as manufacturers do not need to establish and maintain multiple product 

lines to meet multiple requirements. 

Manufacturers also stated that absent a waiver, miscellaneous iron and steel 

components are difficult to acquire from domestic sources or their origins are unknown. The 

lack of a minor component waiver for iron and steel products would prevent manufacturers 

from being able to offer BABAA-compliant products for infrastructure projects subject to 
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BABAA, forcing a recipient to request a waiver for non-domestically sourced product. 

The minor components waiver is appropriate for FEMA programs because it would 

reduce administrative burden by not requiring manufacturers to track and count these minor 

components in otherwise compliant domestic steel and iron products. Finally, a minor 

components waiver will provide consistency across agencies and domestic preference 

requirements, helping to keep product costs down for critical infrastructure projects. 

Many of the resources and benefits delivered by these programs support projects in 

communities with limited technical and financial expertise to comply with complex domestic 

preference requirements. Furthermore, FEMA will need to allocate additional personnel to 

process project-specific waivers. A minor components waiver allowing miscellaneous iron 

and steel minor components of unknown origin up to five percent of the total material cost of 

an otherwise domestically produced iron and steel product allows the Agency to dedicate 

critical personnel to the compliance activities of higher value BABAA compliant items. 

Failure to provide recipients and manufacturers flexibilities with minor components purchases 

may limit the Agency’s ability to successfully implement the BABAA requirements. 

To date, FEMA has taken the actions below to implement the BABAA requirements: 

1. Promulgated Agency-wide policy; 

2. Developed Agency website on BABAA; 

3. Ensured Notices of Funding Opportunity and awards were updated, as appropriate, with 

applicable terms and conditions; 

4. Engaged in Tribal consultations; 

5. Established process for waiver review and routing; 

6. Developed outreach strategy plan to provide guidance and training to FEMA staff and 
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recipients, subrecipients, and stakeholders; 

7. Developed contract provisions and self-certification for recipients and subrecipients to 

include in their contracts and subcontracts funded by FEMA federal financial assistance 

for infrastructure; 

8. Issued a Six Month General Applicability-Adjustment Period Waiver to allow time for 

FEMA to develop policies and procedures to implement the BABAA requirements. 

This waiver was issued on July 1, 2022 and expired on January 1, 2023; 

9. Issued a Six Month Adjustment Period for Tribes Waiver. This waiver was issued on 

February 6, 2023 and is in effect through August 6, 2023; 

10. Issued a Small Projects General Applicability Waiver. This waiver was issued on 

February 21, 2023 and is in effect through February 20, 2028; and 

11. Issued a De Minimis General Applicability Waiver (5% of material costs subject to 

BABAA, not to exceed $1,000,000). This waiver was issued on March 14, 2023 and is 

in effect through March 13, 2028. 

In addition to the actions above, a minor components waiver, focused on reducing 

administrative burden on recipients and subrecipients is also a key part of FEMA’s 

implementation. 

IV. Assessment of Cost Advantage of a Foreign-Sourced Product 

Under OMB Memorandum M-22-11, “Memorandum for Heads of Executive 

Departments and Agencies,” published on April 18, 2022, agencies are expected to assess 

“whether a significant portion of any cost advantage of a foreign-sourced product is the result 

of the use of dumped steel, iron, or manufactured products or the use of injuriously subsidized 

steel, iron, or manufactured products” as appropriate before granting a public interest waiver. 
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FEMA has concluded that this assessment is not applicable to this waiver, as this waiver is not 

based in the cost of foreign-sourced products. FEMA will perform additional market research 

during the duration of the waiver and consult with International Trade Administration (ITA) to 

better understand the market to limit the use of waivers caused by dumping of foreign-sourced 

products. 

V. Limited Duration of Waiver 

FEMA is committed to the successful implementation of the important Buy America 

preference across its programs providing covered federal financial assistance for infrastructure 

projects and will move swiftly towards completion of the processes outlined in this notice. 

This waiver is effective upon approval date, which is July 23, 2023, and will remain in effect 

for all awards or funding obligated to recipients and subrecipients of FEMA financial 

assistance infrastructure projects for five years from the approval date. As FEMA develops 

efficient waiver review capabilities, FEMA will review this waiver within five years of the 

date on which the waiver was issued or more often as necessary to determine its continued 

utility, applicability and relevance with FEMA’s missions and goals consistent with the IIJA, 

and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-22-11, Initial 

Implementation Guidance on Application of Buy America Preference in Federal Financial 

Assistance Programs for Infrastructure. 

VI. Public Comments 

FEMA solicited public comments on the waiver as required under Section 70914 of BABAA. 

In particular, FEMA invited interested parties to comment on the length, purpose, and scope of 

the waiver to allow FEMA to make an informed final determination on this waiver. A total of 

eight comments were received in response to the proposed waiver. FEMA thoroughly reviewed 
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and considered each of the comments in determining to move forward with the issuance of this 

waiver as published in this Final Notice. The comments generally favored a Minor Components 

waiver as proposed. 

A total of six commenters supported the Minor Components waiver as written. One 

commenter asked that FEMA’s guidance outlining the application of the minor components 

waiver use the same standards and language as set forth by the US EPA for its minor (ferrous) 

components waiver. One commenter asked FEMA to consider a waiver for manual gear 

actuators. 

One commenter expressed concern that its iron and steel fasteners would be classified 

as minor components and asked that fasteners be explicitly excluded from the classification of 

minor components. It opposes fasteners being waived or exempted from BABAA as a product 

class. One commenter opposes the Minor Components waiver as contrary to the IIJA and Buy 

America/n policy, stated that FEMA provided no evidence that miscellaneous iron and steel 

components are difficult to acquire domestically, and stated that BABAA requires all steel 

used in federally funded infrastructure projects to be domestically produced. This commenter 

also cited the industry standard use of mill certs to track the origin of steel inputs and disputes 

that the origins of miscellaneous steel components may be unknown, and that determining 

their origin creates an administrative burden. In addition, it said that FHWA and the Federal 

Transit Administration have successfully administered Buy American requirements without 

minor components waivers in place. Lastly, this commenter asks that minor iron and steel 

products be expressly defined and opposes any potential waivers of steel fasteners as a minor 

component product class. 

FEMA appreciates the feedback provided by the commenters and notes that the 

limitations as set forth in this Final Notice will remain, however FEMA will regularly review 
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and evaluate issued waivers to ensure that waivers align with BABAA intent and provide value 

to stakeholder program delivery. 

At this time, after reviewing the submitted comments, FEMA is issuing this Minor 

Components waiver with no substantive changes described herein, with some minor 

clarification regarding the definition of minor components and with other minor, 

inconsequential grammatical revisions. 

Robert A. Farmer 

Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Enterprise Grant 

Services, Grant Programs Directorate 

FEMA 

Attachment: Table A: FEMA Federal Financial Assistance Programs Subject to BABAA Buy 

America Preference 
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Table A: FEMA Federal Financial Assistance Programs Subject to BABAA Buy America Preference 

# 

FEMA Grant 

Program 

Office 

Assistance 

Listing Number 

FEMA Grant Program 

1. GPD 97.044 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG) 

2. FIMA 97.047 Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) 

3. NPD 97.040 Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) 

4. ORR 97.024 Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP – Regular & Humanitarian) 

5. GPD 97.042 Emergency Management Performance Grant Program (EMPG) 

6. GPD 97.052 Emergency Operations Center Grant Program (EOCGP) 

7. GPD 97.044 Fire Prevention & Safety (FP&S) 

8. FIMA 97.029 Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) (including Swift Current) 

9. GPD 97.067 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) 

10. GPD 97.057 Intercity Bus Security Grant Program (IBSGP) 

11. GPD 97.075 Intercity Passenger Rail (IPR) 

12. NCP TBD Next Generation Warning System (NGWS) 

13. GPD 97.008 Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) 

14. GPD 97.056 Port Security Grant Program (PSGP) 

15. FIMA 97.047 Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) 

16. FIMA 97.041 Rehabilitation of High Hazard Potential Dams (HHPD) 

17. FIMA 97.139 Safeguarding Tomorrow Through Ongoing Risk Mitigation Revolving Loan Fund (Safeguarding 

Tomorrow RLF) 
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18. GPD 97.083 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) 

19. GPD 97.137 State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP) 

20. GPD 97.075 Transit Security Grant Program (TSGP) 

21. GPD 97.137 Tribal Cybersecurity Grant Program (TCGP) 

22. GPD 97.067 Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program (THSGP) 

23. ORR 97.025 Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) 

Legend for FEMA Grant Program Offices: 

• FIMA- Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration 

• GPD- Grant Programs Directorate 

• NCP- National Continuity Programs 

• NPD- National Preparedness Directorate 

• ORR- Office of Response and Recovery