The 2021 federal-assistance domestic-content regime for iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials installed in infrastructure projects funded by federal grants.
BABA.
The Build America, Buy America Act was enacted as Title IX of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Public Law 117-58, on November 15, 2021. It extended a domestic-content preference beyond direct federal procurement into the federal financial assistance space, covering grants, cooperative agreements, loans, and other forms of federal assistance for infrastructure projects. The statutory definition of infrastructure is broad and explicitly includes roads, highways, bridges, public transportation, dams, ports, harbors, water and wastewater systems, electrical transmission, broadband, and buildings and real property.
The Office of Management and Budget issued initial implementing guidance through Memorandum M-22-11 in April 2022 and finalized the government-wide regulation at 2 CFR Part 184 in August 2023. The rule applies four product-category tests. All iron and steel products used in the project must be produced in the United States, with all manufacturing processes occurring in the US from initial melting through coating application. Manufactured products must be manufactured in the United States and have US-origin components exceeding 55 percent of the total cost of all components. Construction materials must have all manufacturing processes occur in the United States, with category-specific definitions. Section 70914(b) of the IIJA also names the Buy America preference as the default for any federal financial assistance program that does not already have a stronger preference in place.
Waiver authority sits with the federal agency that administers the program, subject to oversight by the OMB Made in America Office. Three waiver types exist: public-interest waivers, nonavailability waivers, and unreasonable-cost waivers, the latter applying when the cost differential between the domestic and foreign options exceeds 25 percent. Waivers are posted for notice and comment on the Made in America Office portal and must be reviewed before grant of award. Recipients certify compliance project-by-project, and the federal agency conducts post-award verification.
For foreign manufacturers selling pipe, valves, pumps, transformers, fiber optic cable, broadband equipment, electrical components, rail systems, water-treatment equipment, lighting fixtures, or building systems into the US infrastructure book, BABA is now the binding read on state and municipal projects funded by federal assistance, not only direct federal procurement. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act authorized roughly 1.2 trillion dollars in federal spending across five years, much of it routed through state-administered grants. A European manufacturer with strong CE-marked product lines and no US manufacturing footprint cannot be incorporated into a covered project unless a waiver applies or the prime contractor structures around the requirement. Three responses exist: qualify a US assembly facility under the 55 percent cost-of-components test, partner with a US manufacturer that can private-label or co-produce, or pursue the non-federal portion of state and municipal infrastructure spending where BABA does not bind.
The certification flows through the grant recipient to every tier of supplier. A Mittelstand firm supplying a US prime that supplies a state DOT must be able to document country of origin and cost-of-components consistent with BABA, not just commercial country-of-origin practice. The same documentation now feeds the federal Made in America Office portal and any GAO or IG audit that follows.
BABA sits on the procurement chapter of every infrastructure trajectory in the Operators entering the US book, particularly in DACH and Swiss firms with strong water, wastewater, electrical, transit, and broadband product lines. It shows up in the Answers hub on the manufacturing-footprint question, in the Markets work on state and municipal infrastructure spend, and in the Knowledge pillar on cross-border industrial commercialization. The presentation work covers how the firm names its US manufacturing footprint, its BABA-compliant product lines, and its waiver-eligible categories on US-facing surfaces. The filing work belongs with US procurement counsel and the grantee's compliance office.
Global Marketing Agency does not provide legal advice on BABA compliance, country-of-origin determinations, cost-of-components calculations, or waiver applications. Those determinations belong to US procurement counsel, the grantee's compliance office, and the federal agency administering the program. GMA works on how the firm's BABA posture is presented, sequenced, and read on US-facing surfaces, alongside that counsel.
Sources cited on this page: US DOT, Build America Buy America, 2 CFR Part 184, Buy America Preferences for Infrastructure Projects, OMB Memorandum M-22-11, OMB Made in America Office, waiver portal, Public Law 117-58, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, US Government Accountability Office, infrastructure spending oversight.