Tuesday, May 14, 2019

The Buy American Act of 2019

Companion Bills were introduced in the House and Senate this month to strengthen "Buy American" requirements. It is uncertain whether these bills which are likely to pass will result in increased buying of U.S. goods or whether its just more oversight on what is already happening.

The Act begins with a "Sense of Congress" as follows:
Every executive agency should maximize through terms and conditions of Federal financial assistance awards and Federal procurements, the use of goods, products, and materials produced in the United States and contracts for outsourced government service contracts to be performed by United States nationals. Every executive agency should scrupulously monitor, enforce, and comply with the Buy American Laws, to the extent they apply, and minimize the use of waivers. Every executive agency should implement processes to routinely audit its compliance with Buy American laws using data from the Federal Procurement Data System.
So what does this proposed legislation really accomplish? Lots of reporting, for one.

  • Annual reports from OMB (Office of Management and Budget) on compliance with Buy American laws including monitoring and enforcement
  • Listings of each waiver used and an assessment of the waivers' impact on domestic jobs and manufacturing
  • Annual reports from each executive agency on compliance with the Buy American Act.
  • Assessment of the impact that free trade agreements have on the Buy American Act.
  • A new website to include information on all waivers and exceptions to Buy American laws.
  • And a few more.

It seems to us that what this legislation intends to accomplish is to discourage or make it more difficult for procurement to waive the requirements of the various Buy American laws. There is no indication that such has been a significant problem historically so perhaps its just Congress trying to appease a constituency. The real problem it seems is that contractors who supply the Government are able to conceal the origin of their products - like the company that supplied baseball caps to the Marine Corps from China that should have been produced and acquired by domestic manufacturers. No waivers were granted in that case - the contractor simply sewed in "Made in USA" labels.

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