AGC warns could result in significant delays for infrastructure project delivery
Advancing legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate include an AGC-opposed provision that would expand federal-aid highway and transit programs’ Buy America requirements to “construction materials” broadly. AGC and other industry stakeholders are concerned that this new requirement would include but not be limited to aggregates that are used to make products like cement and asphalt. Many regions of the country, for example, consume all of their domestically produced cement and therefore rely on imported cement to support local construction projects. Advocates of the provision point to the Buy America waiver process. However, during the last administration, the Federal Highway Administration only granted five waivers for Buy America, and the Biden administration so far has granted zero.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved this provision as part of its highway and transit reauthorization bill on June 10. The Senate passed the provision in a global competitiveness bill called the United States Innovation and Competition Act on June 8.
For more information, contact Alex Etchen at alex.etchen@agc.org.