Understanding the Complexities of Buy American vs. Build America Buy America

Over the last year, there has been a significant increase in the number of federal broadband grant programs that require a domestic preference (“Buy America”) for the purchase of manufactured products. The problem, however, is that there are two different Buy America standards that apply across multiple federal agencies and there are 4 different waivers available for 6 different programs. The patchwork of Buy America standards and waivers is creating significant confusion in our industry that has led to among other things, a persistent issuance of Request for Proposals (“RFPs”) with unintentional errors. For example, RFPs may ask for the wrong Buy America standard, incorrectly state that a standard applies when it does not, or provide contract language that is different from the standard identified in the RFP. For a manufacturer or a vendor who sells products in this space, this is a critical issue. For grant recipients, compliance is a threshold issue for expenditures. The purpose of this article is to sort through some of the mess and provide a “cheat sheet” for the different standards and programs.

[Lori Adams is VP of Broadband Policy & Funding Strategy at Nokia.]