Kevin Dempsey, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), has issued the following statement in response to the recent White House announcement offering initial guidance to federal agencies implementing the Build America, Buy America Act.
Quoting directly from a memorandum issued by the Executive Office of the President, "A Buy America preference... only applies to the iron and steel, manufactured products, and construction materials used for the infrastructure project under an award.' This can only be good news for the North American steel industry.
Dempsey commented: “We appreciate the commitment of the Biden-Harris administration to ensure that all federally-funded infrastructure and public works projects use iron, steel and other products that are made in America. As some federal programmes do not apply Buy America requirements for the procurement of iron and steel products, we are pleased that today’s initiative begins the process to remedy this situation by providing clear guidance to federal agencies for adopting appropriate Buy America requirements for all federally-funded infrastructure projects.
"This represents just the beginning of a process, and we look forward to working in partnership with the administration and Congress to continue to ensure the use of cleaner American steel in all federally-funded infrastructure projects.”
Kevin Dempsey, president and CEO of the AISI.
“This announcement is an important first step toward ensuring the fullest possible implementation and enforcement of Buy America domestic procurement preferences by all federal agencies. But this represents just the beginning of a process, and we look forward to working in partnership with the administration and Congress to continue to ensure the use of cleaner American steel in all federally-funded infrastructure projects.”
Dempsey noted that the recent announcement implements legislation authored by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) that was enacted as part of the Bipartisan infrastructure Law last year.