U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
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On The Issues: Fact Sheet On the Buy American Improvement Act

February 14, 2007

Under current law, the federal government is supposed to support American manufacturers and American workers by buying goods made in the U.S., but the law contains loopholes that allow agencies to buy foreign goods in some circumstances. The Buy American Improvement would strengthen American manufacturing by making it harder to waive the Buy American requirement.

Feingold’s Buy American Improvement Act would:

  • Prohibit agencies from invoking a waiver in the “public interest” after a request for bids has been published in the Federal Register.

  • Amend the “unreasonable cost” waiver to give domestic bidders, or sole domestic source bidders, preference when their bids are substantially the same as their foreign competitors.

  • Require federal agencies to conduct an analysis of the difference in cost for obtaining certain goods outside the U.S. versus from a domestic source, including shipping costs, prior to invoking this waiver.

  • Require federal agencies to conduct a study to determine whether domestic production can be initiated to meet procurement needs and whether there is a comparable item available from a domestic source before invoking this waiver.

  • Require that products be at least 75 percent American-made in order to qualify under the Buy American Act (current law sets the qualifying content standard at 50 percent).

  • Require submission of annual reports on items purchased from foreign sources, including an itemized list of all waivers under the Act applicable to all federal agencies for five years. Previously, only the Department of Defense was required to submit such a report.

  • Require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report to Congress with recommendations for defining the terms “inconsistent with the public interest” and “unreasonable cost” for purposes of invoking the corresponding waivers in the Act. These broad terms, which grant wide latitude to agency heads, are not defined in federal law.