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1 1 (February 8, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govykg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ______ SResearch Service President Encourages Agencies to Buy American-Produced Goods & Materials February 8, 2019 On January 31, 2019, the President signed the Strengthening Buy-American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects, Executive Order 13858 (EO 13858), which is designed to encourage federal agencies to use, to the maximum extent permissible under law, American-produced goods, materials, and products in procurement contracts and in setting terms for federal assistance programs (e.g., grant programs) involving infrastructure projects. Although Congress has enacted generally applicable domestic preference laws in the procurement context, comparable buy American standards do not generally apply to federal grant and other assistance programs, which are covered in EO 13858. EO 13858 builds on an April 2017 Buy American and Hire American executive order (EO 13788), which focused on encouraging federal agencies to scrutinize compliance with and minimize the use of waivers of domestic preference standards under existing law. The President took these actions after several inspector general (IG) audit reports noted numerous instances of federal agencies failing to comply fully with domestic preference laws or to justify the use of exceptions or waivers in these laws. Although the stated purpose of the EOs is to bolster the American economy and foster job growth, some have expressed concerns that the EOs might discourage agencies from utilizing exceptions and waivers Congress built into these laws to promote legitimate public policy goals, such as judiciously using government resources and maintaining a consistent playing field with U.S. international trading partners. Background on Domestic Content Restrictions in Procurement Congress has erected a number of domestic preference laws designed to encourage executive agencies to procure goods that are produced or manufactured in the United States. These laws vary as to the goods to which they apply, domestic content standards they impose, and the exceptions and waivers they authorize. The Buy American Act establishes various price preferences for certain domestic end products and domestic construction materials (together, domestic products or domestic goods) when the lowest offer on a procurement solicitation is from a foreign-sourced good. The Berry Amendment imposes similar price preferences for American goods, but, among other distinctions, it applies exclusively to certain Department of Defense (DOD) acquisitions and imposes a more stringent domestic content standard than that of the Buy American Act. Both laws provide for a number of exceptions and waivers Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10256 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress