Economy

Biden's New Buy American Rules Aim to Create Manufacturing Jobs

March 8, 2022

President Biden strengthened “Buy American” provisions for government procurement with his signature Friday on new rules that will increase the threshold for the value of products to be considered American-made from the current 55% to 65% by 2024 and 75% by 2029. Proponents consider this a positive development for manufacturing and job-creation in the U.S., despite its inflationary effect on government spending.

“We strongly support efforts to ensure federal tax dollars are used to buy products made in America, including by increasing the value percentage for American-made content that the government must purchase. This initiative supports the domestic production of components critical to our national and economic security, which would include American steel,” said Kevin Dempsey, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute. “This will help maintain good-paying U.S. manufacturing jobs and, since the U.S. leads the world in clean steel production, benefit the environment as well. We appreciate the administration’s commitment to buy American products.”

The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) said it looks forward to working with the administration on additional domestic content policies, such as supply-chain recommendations for critical products and components and implementation of the Build America, Buy America policy for infrastructure projects.

“The events of the past two years have shown that the United States must do more to encourage domestic manufacturing and re-shore supply chains,” said AAM President Scott Paul. “That starts by making sure that taxpayer money is reinvested right back into American workers and manufacturers whenever possible. These preferences encourage companies to locate factories in the United States to qualify for procurement opportunities.”

Under the new rule, government contracts won’t necessarily go to the low bidder. The government can now give price preference to American-made goods as a means of strengthening domestic supply-chains for critical products such as semiconductors and electric vehicles.

Further details of the final rule can be found in the March 4 fact sheet: Biden-Harris Administration Delivers on Made in America Commitments.

“Buy American” rules apply to purchases of more than $10,000 by the U.S. federal government, separate from the “Buy America” rules that call for iron and steel used in federal infrastructure projects to be “melted and poured” in the U.S.

By Tim Triplett, Tim@SteelMarketUpdate.com