🚧Delay of Buy America Requirements
This document delays the effective date of the final rule, published on January 14, 2025, titled Buy America Requirements for Manufactured Products.
Learn More🏗️Public Interest Waiver for Transit-Oriented Development Housing Projects
In order to expeditiously deliver projects and provide meaningful infrastructure results while ensuring the appropriate application of domestic content standards, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is issuing waiver for the domestic preference requirements for manufactured products applicable to certain transit- oriented development (TOD) housing projects that receive credit assistance through the Build America Bureau (the Bureau) under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) and Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) credit programs.
Learn More🌍Waiver of Buy America Requirements for Infrastructure Projects
The Department of Transportation (DOT) is finalizing a general applicability public interest waiver of the requirements of section 70914(a) of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) and related domestic preference statutes administered by DOT and its Operating Administrations (OAs) for federal financial assistance awarded for infrastructure projects located in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and American Samoa, collectively referred to as the Pacific Island territories. The waiver would also apply to discretionary grant assistance provided by DOT to the Freely Associated States (the Republic of Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Federated States of Micronesia) in the Pacific that is subject to a domestic preference statute (which does not include BABA, as that statute only applies to the United States and its territories). The waiver will remain in effect for five years after the effective date of the final waiver. This action also terminates the previously issued temporary general applicability waiver for this region.
Learn More🏗️New Buy America Regulations for Manufactured Products Effective 2025
This final rule amends FHWA's Buy America regulation to terminate FHWA's general waiver for manufactured products and establish Buy America requirements for manufactured products with respect to Federal-aid highway projects. The standards for applying Buy America to manufactured products are generally consistent with the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) guidance implementing the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL)).
Learn More🚆Proposed Waiver of Buy America Requirements for Locomotive Projects
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is seeking comments on whether to grant a general applicability public interest waiver of its Buy America requirements for the purchase of used locomotives that would serve as the underframe or chassis to convert them to all- electric, renewable diesel, battery-powered, or other renewable-energy locomotives. Such projects would remove highly polluting locomotives from the national rail network and replace them with more efficient locomotives that will reduce overall emissions, address environmental burdens on communities, and create domestic jobs. Purchases of these locomotives under FRA-funded projects are subject to FRA's Buy America requirements. However, given the age of these used locomotives, it is difficult and may not be possible to verify whether they are fully compliant with FRA's Buy America requirements. In this general applicability waiver, FRA does not propose to waive the applicable Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) requirements. This proposed waiver would not apply to any other manufactured products, steel, iron, or construction materials.
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