Biden builds on Trump’s “Buy American” order

Building on a robust “Buy American” policy established by the Trump Administration, President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order to update a process for choosing domestic products for federal procurement.

Biden’s action directs agencies to close loopholes in how domestic content is measured and increase domestic content requirements. It replaces the component test used to identify domestic end products and construction materials with a test that measures domestic content by the value added to the product through U.S. production or U.S. job-supporting economic activity. This will increase the numerical threshold for domestic content requirements for end-products and construction materials.

Biden’s action will also increase the price preferences for domestic end-products and domestic construction materials. The order does not provide specific numbers for domestic content requirements or domestic price preferences. It is unclear how much the percentages will increase.

The executive order creates a Made in America Office under the Office of Management and Budget to update and centralize the Made in America waiver process. This is meant to increase oversight of potential waivers of domestic preference laws.