Buy American vs Buy America
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Two acts, both alike in namesake. In the good ole USA is where we lay our scene. From forth the federal government has imposed two domestic material procurement requirements. The terms, those similar have distinct differences but are often confused for one another. Or the other is unknown. Knowing the difference can save public projects, the negative impact of failing to comply can be severe. Think license suspension and debarment… yikes.
For manufactured products, the Buy American Act imposes a two-part test to define a domestic end product;
(1) The end-product must be manufactured in the United States
(2) The cost of domestic components must exceed 50% of the cost of all the components. This excludes end products that consist wholly or predominantly of iron or steel or a combination of both. This domestic content test of the Buy American statute has been waived for acquisitions of commercially available off-the-shelf items.
Buy America Act was established within the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grants on transportation projects. The act refers specifically to domestic content restrictions attached by the US Department of Transportation to construction of transportation projects for all federally funded purchases of steel, iron, and manufactured goods, including rolling stock purchases and capital leases.
The Federal Transit Administration’s requirements reinforce that light fixture components are a subcomponent and if used in an end-use product manufactured in the USA, the replacement would remain a subcomponent of the system and would not be required to be manufactured in the United States under a Federal Buy America requirement. The requirement is for construction materials like concrete, steel, and aluminum at airports, subway/rail stations, bridges, etc. Therefore, lighting fixtures and controls are included in Buy America requirements as long as they are made and manufactured in the US. The components of the lighting fixtures can come from abroad.
There are some Lighting representative like Moxie Lighting for example, that have Interactive Linecard, you could filter for manufactures that have fixtures that are BUY AMERICAN compliant:
