APTA, Coalition Partners Urge OMB to Improve Buy America Implementation

APTA, together with three coalition partners, petitioned the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Feb. 15 to improve implementation of the Buy America construction materials requirements of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA). The coalition strongly supports BABAA’s laudable core purpose of strengthening domestic manufacturing. However, coalition members, particularly the construction industry, have encountered significant difficulty in navigating OMB’s (and the Made In America Office’s) implementation of BABAA.

APTA and its coalition partners petition for a Buy America rulemaking to implement the construction materials requirement, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. § 553(e)). The coalition also invokes the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. § 3517(b)) to request a review of certain information collections conducted by federal agencies for BABAA waivers that fail to comply with the PRA.

The petition states, “OMB needs to establish new procedures; improve its existing procedures; exercise greater diligence in providing the public with notice of the particulars of BABAA implementation; genuinely consider comments that it receives; adjust its substantive interpretations of BABAA; establish a database of BABAA-compliant construction materials and manufactured products; and institute a robust, no-cost training regime for all stakeholders, among other improvements.”

APTA asks OMB to partner with the coalition to implement the new Buy America construction materials requirements. APTA requests that the agency provides a response to the petition by April 15, 2024.

For a link to APTA’s matrix of regulatory and other administrative actions, click here.