§ 8301. Definitions

§ 8301. Definitions

(1) Public building, public use, and public work.— The terms “public building”, “public use”, and “public work” mean a public building of, use by, and a public work of, the Federal Government, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands.

(2) United states.— The term “United States” includes any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

(3) Federal agency.— The term “Federal agency” has the meaning given the term “executive agency” in section 133 of this title.

(Pub. L. 111–350, § 3, Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3830; Pub. L. 117–58, div. G, title IX, § 70922(d), Nov. 15, 2021, 135 Stat. 1304.)

In paragraph (1), the words “the Philippine Islands” are omitted because of Proclamation No. 2695 (22 U.S.C. 1394 note). The words “the Canal Zone” are omitted because of the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977.

In paragraph (2), the words “when used in a geographical sense” are omitted as unnecessary.

Historical and Revision Notes
RevisedSection	Source (U.S. Code)	Source (Statutes at Large)
8301	41:10c.	Mar. 3, 1933, ch. 212, title III, § 1, 47 Stat. 1520; Pub. L. 86–70, § 43, June 25, 1959, 73 Stat. 151; Pub. L. 86–624, § 28, July 12, 1960, 74 Stat. 419; Pub. L. 100–418, title VII, § 7005(a), Aug. 23, 1988, 102 Stat. 1552.

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2021—Par. (3). Pub. L. 117–58 added par. (3).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Build America, Buy America

Pub. L. 117–58, div. G, title IX, Nov. 15, 2021, 135 Stat. 1294, as amended by Pub. L. 117–167, div. B, title II, § 10254, Aug. 9, 2022, 136 Stat. 1502; Pub. L. 118–159, div. A, title XVII, § 1704, Dec. 23, 2024, 138 Stat. 2208, provided that:

“Subtitle A—Build America, Buy America

“SEC. 70901. SHORT TITLE.

“This subtitle may be cited as the ‘Build America, Buy America Act’.

“PART I—BUY AMERICA SOURCING REQUIREMENTS

“SEC. 70911. FINDINGS.

“Congress finds that—

“(1) the United States must make significant investments to install, upgrade, or replace the public works infrastructure of the United States;

“(2) with respect to investments in the infrastructure of the United States, taxpayers expect that their public works infrastructure will be produced in the United States by American workers;

“(3) United States taxpayer dollars invested in public infrastructure should not be used to reward companies that have moved their operations, investment dollars, and jobs to foreign countries or foreign factories, particularly those that do not share or openly flout the commitments of the United States to environmental, worker, and workplace safety protections;

“(4) in procuring materials for public works projects, entities using taxpayer-financed Federal assistance should give a commonsense procurement preference for the materials and products produced by companies and workers in the United States in accordance with the high ideals embodied in the environmental, worker, workplace safety, and other regulatory requirements of the United States;

“(5) common construction materials used in public works infrastructure projects, including steel, iron, manufactured products, non-ferrous metals, plastic and polymer-based products (including polyvinylchloride, composite building materials, and polymers used in fiber optic cables), glass (including optic glass), lumber, and drywall are not adequately covered by a domestic content procurement preference, thus limiting the impact of taxpayer purchases to enhance supply chains in the United States;

“(6) the benefits of domestic content procurement preferences extend beyond economics;

“(7) by incentivizing domestic manufacturing, domestic content procurement preferences reinvest tax dollars in companies and processes using the highest labor and environmental standards in the world;

“(8) strong domestic content procurement preference policies act to prevent shifts in production to countries that rely on production practices that are significantly less energy efficient and far more polluting than those in the United States;

“(9) for over 75 years, Buy America and other domestic content procurement preference laws have been part of the United States procurement policy, ensuring that the United States can build and rebuild the infrastructure of the United States with high-quality American-made materials;

“(10) before the date of enactment of this Act [Nov. 15, 2021], a domestic content procurement preference requirement may not apply, may apply only to a narrow scope of products and materials, or may be limited by waiver with respect to many infrastructure programs, which necessitates a review of such programs, including programs for roads, highways, and bridges, public transportation, dams, ports, harbors, and other maritime facilities, intercity passenger and freight railroads, freight and intermodal facilities, airports, water systems, including drinking water and wastewater systems, electrical transmission facilities and systems, utilities, broadband infrastructure, and buildings and real property;

“(11) Buy America laws create demand for domestically produced goods, helping to sustain and grow domestic manufacturing and the millions of jobs domestic manufacturing supports throughout product supply chains;

“(12) as of the date of enactment of this Act, domestic content procurement preference policies apply to all Federal Government procurement and to various Federal-aid infrastructure programs;

“(13) a robust domestic manufacturing sector is a vital component of the national security of the United States;

“(14) as more manufacturing operations of the United States have moved offshore, the strength and readiness of the defense industrial base of the United States has been diminished; and

“(15) domestic content procurement preference laws—

“(A) are fully consistent with the international obligations of the United States; and

“(B) together with the government procurements to which the laws apply, are important levers for ensuring that United States manufacturers can access the government procurement markets of the trading partners of the United States.

“SEC. 70912. DEFINITIONS.

“In this part:

“(1) Deficient program.—The term ‘deficient program’ means a program identified by the head of a Federal agency under section 70913(c).

“(2) Domestic content procurement preference.—The term ‘domestic content procurement preference’ means a requirement that no amounts made available through a program for Federal financial assistance may be obligated for a project unless—

“(A) all iron and steel used in the project are produced in the United States;

“(B) the manufactured products used in the project are produced in the United States; or

“(C) the construction materials used in the project are produced in the United States.

“(3) Federal agency.—The term ‘Federal agency’ means any authority of the United States that is an ‘agency’ (as defined in section 3502 of title 44, United States Code), other than an independent regulatory agency (as defined in that section).

“(4) Federal financial assistance.—

“(A) In general.—The term ‘Federal financial assistance’ has the meaning given the term in section 200.1 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations (or successor regulations).

“(B) Inclusion.—The term ‘Federal financial assistance’ includes all expenditures by a Federal agency to a non-Federal entity for an infrastructure project, except that it does not include expenditures for assistance authorized under section 402, 403, 404, 406, 408, or 502 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170a, 5170b, 5170c, 5172, 5174, or 5192) relating to a major disaster or emergency declared by the President under section 401 or 501, respectively, of such Act (42 U.S.C. 5170, 5191) or pre and post disaster or emergency response expenditures.

“(5) Infrastructure.—The term ‘infrastructure’ includes, at a minimum, the structures, facilities, and equipment for, in the United States—

“(A) roads, highways, and bridges;

“(B) public transportation;

“(C) dams, ports, harbors, and other maritime facilities (except vessels which are oceanographic research vessels operated by academic institutions);

“(D) intercity passenger and freight railroads;

“(E) freight and intermodal facilities;

“(F) airports;

“(G) water systems, including drinking water and wastewater systems;

“(H) electrical transmission facilities and systems;

“(I) utilities;

“(J) broadband infrastructure; and

“(K) buildings and real property.

“(6) Produced in the united states.—The term ‘produced in the United States’ means—

“(A) in the case of iron or steel products, that all manufacturing processes, from the initial melting stage through the application of coatings, occurred in the United States;

“(B) in the case of manufactured products, that—

“(i) the manufactured product was manufactured in the United States; and

“(ii) the cost of the components of the manufactured product that are mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States is greater than 55 percent of the total cost of all components of the manufactured product, unless another standard for determining the minimum amount of domestic content of the manufactured product has been established under applicable law or regulation; and

“(C) in the case of construction materials, that all manufacturing processes for the construction material occurred in the United States.

“(7) Project.—The term ‘project’ means the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of infrastructure in the United States.

“SEC. 70913. IDENTIFICATION OF DEFICIENT PROGRAMS.

“(a) In General.—Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act [Nov. 15, 2021], the head of each Federal agency shall—

“(1) submit to the Office of Management and Budget and to Congress, including a separate notice to each appropriate congressional committee, a report that identifies each Federal financial assistance program for infrastructure administered by the Federal agency; and

“(2) publish in the Federal Register the report under paragraph (1).

“(b) Requirements.—In the report under subsection (a), the head of each Federal agency shall, for each Federal financial assistance program—

“(1) identify all domestic content procurement preferences applicable to the Federal financial assistance;

“(2) assess the applicability of the domestic content procurement preference requirements, including—

“(A) section 313 of title 23, United States Code;

“(B) section 5323(j) of title 49, United States Code;

“(C) section 22905(a) of title 49, United States Code;

“(D) section 50101 of title 49, United States Code;

“(E) section 603 [sic; probably should be “section 608”] of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1388);

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

“(G) section 5035 of the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 (33 U.S.C. 3914);

“(H) any domestic content procurement preference included in an appropriations Act; and

“(I) any other domestic content procurement preference in Federal law (including regulations);

“(3) provide details on any applicable domestic content procurement preference requirement, including the purpose, scope, applicability, and any exceptions and waivers issued under the requirement; and

“(4) include a description of the type of infrastructure projects that receive funding under the program, including information relating to—

“(A) the number of entities that are participating in the program;

“(B) the amount of Federal funds that are made available for the program for each fiscal year; and

“(C) any other information the head of the Federal agency determines to be relevant.

“(c) List of Deficient Programs.—In the report under subsection (a), the head of each Federal agency shall include a list of Federal financial assistance programs for infrastructure identified under that subsection for which a domestic content procurement preference requirement—

“(1) does not apply in a manner consistent with section 70914; or

“(2) is subject to a waiver of general applicability not limited to the use of specific products for use in a specific project.

“SEC. 70914. APPLICATION OF BUY AMERICA PREFERENCE.

“(a) In General.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act [Nov. 15, 2021], the head of each Federal agency shall ensure that none of the funds made available for a Federal financial assistance program for infrastructure, including each deficient program, may be obligated for a project unless all of the iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials used in the project are produced in the United States.

“(b) Waiver.—The head of a Federal agency that applies a domestic content procurement preference under this section may waive the application of that preference in any case in which the head of the Federal agency finds that—

“(1) applying the domestic content procurement preference would be inconsistent with the public interest;

“(2) types of iron, steel, manufactured products, or construction materials are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities or of a satisfactory quality; or

“(3) the inclusion of iron, steel, manufactured products, or construction materials produced in the United States will increase the cost of the overall project by more than 25 percent.

“(c) Written Justification.—Before issuing a waiver under subsection (b), the head of the Federal agency shall—

“(1) make publicly available in an easily accessible location on a website designated by the Office of Management and Budget and on the website of the Federal agency a detailed written explanation for the proposed determination to issue the waiver; and

“(2) provide a period of not less than 15 days for public comment on the proposed waiver.

“(d) Review of Waivers of General Applicability.—

“(1) In general.—An existing general applicability waiver or a general applicability waiver issued under subsection (b) shall be reviewed every 5 years after the date on which the waiver is issued.

“(2) Review.—In conducting a review of a general applicability waiver, the head of a Federal agency shall—

“(A) publish in the Federal Register a notice that—

“(i) describes the justification for a general applicability waiver; and

“(ii) requests public comments for a period of not less than 30 days on the continued need for a general applicability waiver; and

“(B) publish in the Federal Register a determination on whether to continue or discontinue the general applicability waiver, taking into account the comments received in response to the notice published under subparagraph (A).

“(3) Limitation on the review of existing waivers of general applicability.—For a period of 5 years beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, paragraphs (1) and (2) shall not apply to any product-specific general applicability waiver that was issued more than 180 days before the date of enactment of this Act.

“(e) Consistency With International Agreements.—This section shall be applied in a manner consistent with United States obligations under international agreements.

“SEC. 70915. OMB GUIDANCE AND STANDARDS.

“(a) Guidance.—The Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall—

“(1) issue guidance to the head of each Federal agency—

“(A) to assist in identifying deficient programs under section 70913(c); and

“(B) to assist in applying new domestic content procurement preferences under section 70914; and

“(2) if necessary, amend subtitle A of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations (or successor regulations), to ensure that domestic content procurement preference requirements required by this part or other Federal law are imposed through the terms and conditions of awards of Federal financial assistance.

“(b) Standards for Construction Materials.—

“(1) In general.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act [Nov. 15, 2021], the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall issue standards that define the term ‘all manufacturing processes’ in the case of construction materials.

“(2) Considerations.—In issuing standards under paragraph (1), the Director shall—

“(A) ensure that the standards require that each manufacturing process required for the manufacture of the construction material and the inputs of the construction material occurs in the United States; and

“(B) take into consideration and seek to maximize the direct and indirect jobs benefited or created in the production of the construction material.

“SEC. 70916. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PARTNERSHIP AND CONSULTATION SUPPORTING DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION BUY AMERICA REQUIREMENTS.

“(a) Definitions.—In this section:

“(1) Buy america law.—The term ‘Buy America law’ means—

“(A) section 313 of title 23, United States Code;

“(B) section 5323(j) of title 49, United States Code;

“(C) section 22905(a) of title 49, United States Code;

“(D) section 50101 of title 49, United States Code; and

“(E) any other domestic content procurement preference for an infrastructure project under the jurisdiction of the Secretary.

“(2) Secretary.—The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary of Transportation.