Dear Director Young: The undersigned associations stand ready to work with you and others across the Administration to ensure projects funded through the landmark bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) achieve their full potential.
We understand the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is working to develop guidance to support federal agencies’ application of the IIJA’s expansion of Buy America requirements. Given the breadth of newly affected infrastructure projects, the sheer amount of funding, the novelty of these requirements in certain sectors, and the ambitious implementation timelines, it is critical that guidance related to the IIJA’s expansion of Buy America requirements fully considers industry’s experience with supply chains and provides for the consistent application of the rules across the federal government. Without sufficient stakeholder engagement to ensure the implementation of Buy America requirements aligns with the realities of the existing commercial marketplace, it is plausible that the planned investments in utilities (e.g., water and power), electric vehicle infrastructure, broadband, roads, and bridges will not come to fruition.