The Department of Transportation is Reviewing a Harmful Buy America Waiver, and We Only Have Until April 17 to Act
Join the Alliance for American Manufacturing in telling Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the team at the Department of Transportation to finally put an end to the waiver and enforce Buy America.
Editor’s Note: Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul sent the email copied below to our grassroots supporters on April 3.
For the first time in decades, the United States is making a significant investment to rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges. Thanks to smart, bipartisan policy called Buy America, we can maximize our investment by making sure American workers and companies have the first shot at making the products and materials needed to build this new infrastructure.
But there’s bad news, too. Importers are working to undermine Buy America – and you and I only have two weeks to do something about it.
Here’s what’s going on. For years, the Alliance for American Manufacturing has demanded that the Department of Transportation put an end to its harmful waiver of Buy America for manufactured products. Thankfully, Congress agreed with us and took action to strengthen Buy America – and now the Department of Transportation is officially reviewing the waiver.
If this waiver remains as-is, taxpayer money that would otherwise be spent on American-made manufactured products – and thus reinvested back into American workers and companies – is more likely to be spent on foreign-made products, including in places like China.
That just doesn’t make sense. Why send Americans’ hard-earned tax money to our strategic competitors when there are U.S. workers and manufacturers ready to do this work right here?
The United States learned the hard way during the COVID-19 pandemic what happens when we rely on imports for the things we need. And the U.S. is now spending hundreds of billions of dollars to bring some of our lost manufacturing back home. The best path is to identify and maintain our existing capabilities as we work to restore what’s been lost.
But we only have until April 17 to tell Secretary Buttigieg and his team to do the right thing and stand up for American workers.
Join me in taking action! Let’s make sure that taxpayer-supported infrastructure is Made in America.