As you know, ARTBA and our allies have been advocating on a variety of Buy America issues. Currently, FHWA is reviewing its longstanding general applicability waiver for manufactured products from Buy America requirements.

FHWA has officially extended the deadline for comments to Monday, May 22.  ARTBA was among several national organizations that requested an extension, given that we are supposed to provide comments based on 40+ years of experience with this waiver. As a reminder, the Federal Register notice from March 17 for the waiver review is here – https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-03-17/pdf/2023-05498.pdf

ARTBA is preparing comments and we appreciate any feedback you can offer on the importance of maintaining the manufactured products waiver, including specific examples.  We also urge our individual members and chapter affiliates to submit comments of your own by May 22.

Finally, please note that a group called the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which is funded by the United Steelworkers and related interests, has been conducting a campaign through which thousands of individuals have sent identical messages to the FHWA docket, calling for the waiver to be repealed. They refer to it as a “loophole” that encourages “offshoring.” (See their grassroots notice here – https://americanmanufacturing.salsalabs.org/endthebuyamericaloophole/index.html )

It appears that, as a group, those sending these comments have no particular connection to the steel industry and certainly no relationship to transportation construction. Many look to be “moveon.org” type petition signers. Our best response is to submit comments with specific reasons illustrating why rollback or repeal of the waiver will adversely affect timely and cost-effective delivery of federal-aid highway and transit projects in the short-term.

As a reminder, the individual running this group recently referred in a news article to contractors as “helpless children” and said they were “annoying.” Despite this disrespectful mind set, his group (with a staff of 22) is well-funded and shows why we need to fight hard for federal policymakers to understand the real effects of their Buy America implementation policies.