Build America, Buy America Waivers - United States Department of State

The Build America, Buy America Act, enacted as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on November 15, 2021, requires that any infrastructure project in the United States receiving federal funding must source iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials from the United States.

Per section 70914(c) of the Act, a federal agency may issue a waiver if it finds that:

Applying the Buy America preference would be inconsistent with the public interest (a “public interest waiver”).
Types of iron, steel, manufactured products, or construction materials are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities or of a satisfactory quality (a “nonavailability waiver”).
The inclusion of iron, steel, manufactured products, or construction materials produced in the United States will increase the cost of the overall project by more than 25 percent (an “unreasonable cost waiver”).

The Department of State does not currently provide financial assistance for covered infrastructure projects, and does not anticipate issuing any waivers. However, any waiver the Department of State intends to issue will be posted to this website for public review and comment for 15 days.