Glossary
Buy American requirements
Buy American is shorthand for a family of domestic-preference rules, not one law. The original Buy American Act, 41 U.S.C. 8301 and following, applies to federal agency purchases of articles, materials and supplies and to federal public works, with domestic content standards and exceptions for nonavailability, unreasonable cost and public interest. It sits alongside, but is separate from, Davis-Bacon labor standards on the same federally funded jobs.
Separately, the Build America, Buy America Act, enacted in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, applies domestic preference to infrastructure projects funded by federal financial assistance, which is how the requirement reaches state, county and city projects.
The short version
- Three different regimes share the name: the Buy American Act, Build America Buy America, and program-specific rules such as those long applied to federal-aid highways.
- The one that most often affects state and local bidders is Build America Buy America, because it attaches to federal grants rather than to federal contracts.
- Coverage categories differ: iron and steel, manufactured products, and construction materials are treated separately.
- Waivers exist but are granted by the funding agency, not by the local owner, and they take time.
Why it matters to a bidder
Domestic sourcing changes lead times and prices, and the certification is a contract obligation you sign:
- Get supplier certifications before you bid, not after. A distributor's assurance that a product is domestic is not the same as a mill certificate or a manufacturer's certification of origin.
- Watch substitutions. A late substitution of a foreign-made component after award is a compliance failure, not a procurement convenience.
- Waivers run through the federal agency. If a required item has no domestic source, the local owner cannot waive it; the funding agency must. Build that timeline into the schedule.
- Documentation is retained and audited. Keep certifications with the project file for the full record-retention period.
A real example
A rural water district replaces a pump station with a state revolving fund loan capitalized by federal money. The engineer specifies a European pump with a domestic control panel. Because federal assistance funds the project, iron and steel products and manufactured products must be produced domestically unless waived. The district applies for a nonavailability waiver, which takes several months, and the schedule slips a full construction season. A bidder who had priced a compliant domestic pump would have been higher at bid opening and better off at completion.
Where state and local practice differs from federal
The Buy American Act does not directly bind state or local governments. It governs federal agency procurement, and its definitions of public building and public work are framed around the federal government and the territories. What binds local agencies is the grant agreement.
That produces a specific practical rule: the domestic-content obligations on a city or district project come from the funding program, and you find them in the grant conditions and the solicitation's federal provisions, not in the state procurement code. Separately, a number of states have enacted their own buy-American or buy-domestic steel statutes for state-funded work, with their own thresholds and exceptions, and a few localities have local-preference ordinances that are a different concept entirely: geography of the bidder rather than origin of the material. Where those exist they usually appear in the evaluation criteria.
Common questions
Does Buy American apply to a city project with no federal money?
Not federally. A state buy-domestic statute may still apply, so check the state code and the solicitation's provisions.
What is the difference between Buy American and Build America Buy America?
The Buy American Act governs federal agency purchases. Build America Buy America applies domestic preference to infrastructure built with federal financial assistance, which is how it reaches state and local projects.
Who grants a waiver?
The federal agency administering the funding program, following a public notice process. The local owner cannot grant one on its own.
Is a local preference the same thing?
No. Local preference favors bidders located in the jurisdiction. Buy American rules concern where the materials were produced.