II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2056 

To ensure that certain Federal infrastructure programs require the use of 

materials produced in the United States, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 8, 2019 

Mr. BROWN (for himself, Mr. PORTMAN, Mr. BRAUN, and Mr. PETERS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To ensure that certain Federal infrastructure programs require the use of materials produced in the United States, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Build America, Buy 

5 America Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 


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1 (1) the United States must make significant in2 vestments to install, upgrade, or replace the public 

3 works infrastructure of the United States; 

4 (2) with respect to investments in the infra5 structure of the United States, taxpayers expect that 

6 their public works infrastructure will be produced in 

7 the United States by American workers; 

8 (3) United States taxpayer dollars invested in 

9 public infrastructure should not be used to reward 

10 companies that have moved their operations, invest11 ment dollars, and jobs to foreign countries or foreign 

12 factories, particularly those that do not share or 

13 openly flout the commitments of the United States 

14 to environmental, worker, and workplace safety pro15 tections; 

16 (4) in procuring materials for public works 

17 projects, entities using taxpayer-financed Federal as18 sistance should give a commonsense procurement 

19 preference for the materials and products produced 

20 by companies and workers in the United States in 

21 accordance with the high ideals embodied in the en22 vironmental, worker, workplace safety, and other 

23 regulatory requirements of the United States; 

24 (5) the benefits of domestic content preferences 

25 extend beyond economics; 


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1 (6) by incentivizing domestic manufacturing, 

2 domestic content preferences reinvest tax dollars in 

3 companies and processes using the highest labor and 

4 environmental standards in the world; 

5 (7) strong domestic content preference policies 

6 act to prevent shifts in production to countries that 

7 rely on production practices that are significantly 

8 less energy efficient and far more polluting than 

9 those in the United States; 

10 (8) for over 75 years, Buy America and other 

11 domestic preference laws have been part of the 

12 United States procurement policy, ensuring that the 

13 United States can build and rebuild the infrastruc14 ture of the United States with high-quality Amer15 ican-made materials; 

16 (9) Buy America laws create demand for do17 mestically produced goods, helping to sustain and 

18 grow domestic manufacturing and the millions of 

19 jobs domestic manufacturing supports throughout 

20 product supply chains; 

21 (10) as of the date of enactment of this Act, 

22 domestic procurement preference policies apply to all 

23 Federal Government procurement and to various 

24 Federal-aid infrastructure programs; 


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1 (11) a robust domestic manufacturing sector is 

2 a vital component of the national security of the 

3 United States; 

4 (12) as more manufacturing operations of the 

5 United States have moved offshore, the strength and 

6 readiness of the defense industrial base of the 

7 United States has been diminished; and 

8 (13) domestic procurement preference laws— 

9 (A) are fully consistent with the inter10 national obligations of the United States; and 

11 (B) together with the government procure12 ments to which the laws apply, are important 

13 levers for ensuring that United States manufac14 turers can access the government procurement 

15 markets of the trading partners of the United 

16 States. 

17 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

18 In this Act: 

19 (1) DEFICIENT PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘deficient 

20 program’’ means a program identified by the head of 

21 a Federal agency under section 4(c). 

22 (2) DOMESTIC CONTENT PROCUREMENT PREF23 ERENCE.—The term ‘‘domestic content procurement 

24 preference’’ means a requirement that no amounts 

25 made available through a program for Federal finanVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:08 Jul 10, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2056.IS S2056

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1 cial assistance may be obligated for a project un2 less— 

3 (A) all iron and steel used in the project 

4 are produced in the United States; or 

5 (B) the manufactured products used in the 

6 project are produced in the United States. 

7 (3) FEDERAL AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Federal 

8 agency’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘agency’’ 

9 in section 552(f) of title 5, United States Code. 

10 (4) FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.— 

11 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘Federal fi12 nancial assistance’’ has the meaning given the 

13 term in section 200.40 of title 2, Code of Fed14 eral Regulations (or successor regulations). 

15 (B) INCLUSION.—The term ‘‘Federal fi16 nancial assistance’’ includes all expenditures by 

17 a Federal agency for an infrastructure project. 

18 (5) INFRASTRUCTURE.—The term ‘‘infrastruc19 ture’’ includes, at a minimum, the structures, facili20 ties, and equipment for, in the United States— 

21 (A) roads, highways, and bridges; 

22 (B) public transportation; 

23 (C) dams, ports, harbors, and other mari24 time facilities; 


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1 (D) intercity passenger and freight rail2 roads; 

3 (E) freight and intermodal facilities; 

4 (F) airports; 

5 (G) water systems, including drinking 

6 water and wastewater systems; 

7 (H) electrical transmission facilities and 

8 systems; 

9 (I) utilities; 

10 (J) broadband infrastructure; and 

11 (K) buildings and real property. 

12 (6) PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES.—The 

13 term ‘‘produced in the United States’’ means, in the 

14 case of iron or steel products, that all manufacturing 

15 processes, from the initial melting stage through the 

16 application of coatings, occurred in the United 

17 States. 

18 (7) PROJECT.—The term ‘‘project’’ means the 

19 construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of 

20 infrastructure in the United States. 

21 SEC. 4. IDENTIFICATION OF DEFICIENT PROGRAMS. 

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 

23 date of enactment of this Act, the head of each Federal 

24 agency shall— 


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1 (1) submit to the Office of Management and 

2 Budget and to Congress, including a separate notice 

3 to each appropriate congressional committee, a re4 port that identifies each Federal financial assistance 

5 program for infrastructure administered by the Fed6 eral agency; and 

7 (2) publish in the Federal Register the report 

8 under paragraph (1). 

9 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—In the report under subsection 

10 (a), the head of each Federal agency shall, for each Fed11 eral financial assistance program— 

12 (1) identify all domestic content procurement 

13 preferences applicable to the Federal financial as14 sistance; 

15 (2) assess the applicability of the domestic con16 tent procurement preference requirements, includ17 ing— 

18 (A) section 313 of title 23, United States 

19 Code; 

20 (B) section 5323(j) of title 49, United 

21 States Code; 

22 (C) section 22905(a) of title 49, United 

23 States Code; 

24 (D) section 50101 of title 49, United 

25 States Code; 


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1 (E) section 603 of the Federal Water Pol2 lution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1388); 

3 (F) section 1452(a)(4) of the Safe Drink4 ing Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j–12(a)(4)); 

5 (G) section 5035 of the Water Infrastruc6 ture Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 (33 

7 U.S.C. 3914); 

8 (H) any domestic content procurement 

9 preference included in an appropriations Act; 

10 and 

11 (I) any other domestic content procure12 ment preference in Federal law (including regu13 lations); 

14 (3) provide details on any applicable domestic 

15 content procurement preference requirement, includ16 ing the purpose, scope, applicability, and any excep17 tions and waivers issued under the requirement; and 

18 (4) include a description of the type of infra19 structure projects that receive funding under the 

20 program, including information relating to— 

21 (A) the number of entities that are partici22 pating in the program; 

23 (B) the amount of Federal funds that are 

24 made available for the program for each fiscal 

25 year; and 


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1 (C) any other information the head of the 

2 Federal agency determines to be relevant. 

3 (c) LIST OF DEFICIENT PROGRAMS.—In the report 

4 under subsection (a), the head of each Federal agency 

5 shall include a list of Federal financial assistance pro6 grams for infrastructure identified under that subsection 

7 for which a domestic content procurement preference re8 quirement— 

9 (1) does not apply; or 

10 (2) is subject to a waiver of general applica11 bility not limited to the use of specific products for 

12 use in a specific project. 

13 SEC. 5. APPLICATION OF BUY AMERICA PREFERENCE. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 

15 date of enactment of this Act, the head of each Federal 

16 agency shall ensure that none of the funds made available 

17 for a Federal financial assistance program for infrastruc18 ture, including each deficient program, may be used for 

19 a project unless all of the iron, steel, and manufactured 

20 products used in the project are produced in the United 

21 States. 

22 (b) WAIVER.—The head of a Federal agency that ap23 plies a domestic content procurement preference under 

24 this section may waive the application of that preference 


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1 in any case in which the head of the Federal agency finds 

2 that— 

3 (1) applying the domestic content procurement 

4 preference would be inconsistent with the public in5 terest; 

6 (2) types of iron, steel, or manufactured prod7 ucts are not produced in the United States in suffi8 cient and reasonably available quantities or of a sat9 isfactory quality; or 

10 (3) the inclusion of iron, steel, or manufactured 

11 products produced in the United States will increase 

12 the cost of the overall project by more than 25 per13 cent. 

14 (c) WRITTEN JUSTIFICATION.—Before issuing a 

15 waiver under subsection (b), the head of the Federal agen16 cy shall— 

17 (1) publish in the Federal Register and make 

18 publicly available in an easily accessible location on 

19 the website of the Federal agency a detailed written 

20 explanation for the proposed determination to issue 

21 the waiver; and 

22 (2) provide a reasonable period for public com23 ment on the proposed waiver. 

24 (d) PROHIBITION ON WAIVERS OF GENERAL APPLI25 CABILITY.—A waiver issued under subsection (b) shall be 


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1 limited to the use of specific products for use in a specific 

2 project. 

3 (e) CONSISTENCY WITH INTERNATIONAL AGREE4 MENTS.—This section shall be applied in a manner con5 sistent with United States obligations under international 

6 agreements. 

7 SEC. 6. OMB GUIDANCE. 

8 The Director of the Office of Management and Budg9 et shall— 

10 (1) issue guidance to the head of each Federal 

11 agency— 

12 (A) to assist in identifying deficient pro13 grams under section 4(c); and 

14 (B) to assist in applying new domestic con15 tent procurement preferences under section 5; 

16 and 

17 (2) if necessary, amend subtitle A of title 2, 

18 Code of Federal Regulations (or successor regula19 tions), to ensure that domestic content procurement 

20 preference requirements required by this Act or 

21 other Federal law are imposed through the terms 

22 and conditions of awards of Federal financial assist23 ance. 


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1 SEC. 7. APPLICATION. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—This Act shall apply to a Federal 

3 financial assistance program for infrastructure only to the 

4 extent that a domestic content procurement preference as 

5 described in section 5 does not already apply to iron, steel, 

6 and manufactured products. 

7 (b) SAVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in this Act affects 

8 a domestic content procurement preference for a Federal 

9 financial assistance program for infrastructure that is in 

10 effect and that meets the requirements of section 5. 

Æ 


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