On August 27, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) responded to Íæż½ã½ã’s request to review the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA) information collection procedures of 19 different federal agencies. OMB indicated that the 19 agencies, which had been identified as out of compliance with all requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), have addressed those concerns and are using approved forms for their information collections.
As a reminder, Íæż½ã½ã along with a coalition of industry partners, submitted a request for OMB to review PRA compliance of various federal agencies. Proper collection practices are necessary in order for agencies to properly assess the need for BABAA waivers on a project-by-project basis or using ones with general applicability for all projects. A , further highlighting the need for transparency, found that the EPA was unable to identify how many award recipients had used the approved waivers in their projects or to quantify how many infrastructure projects were subject to a waiver.
The request submitted by Íæż½ã½ã on February 15th also called for the OMB to amend its BABAA implementation to streamline the waiver process and expedite the time necessary for approvals and denials. OMB did not respond to this portion of the request but indicated that they will respond to that request separately.
Additional actions that Íæż½ã½ã has taken to ensure the BABAA regulations do not pose an undue burden on contractors:
- Íæż½ã½ã expresses concerns with proposals to expand Buy America requirements –June 2021
- Íæż½ã½ã weighs in on Buy America to US Senate – July 2021
- Íæż½ã½ã asks for Buy America transition period and improvements to waiver process – January 2022
- – March 2022
- to study impacts of Buy America on Supply Chain – May 2022
- Íæż½ã½ã of Buy America requirements – June 2022
- Íæż½ã½ã Member, , testifies on Buy America – December 2022
- Íæż½ã½ã Meets with on Buy America – January 2023
- Íæż½ã½ã Member, , testifies on Buy America – February 2023
- on Made in America Guidance – March 2023
- with Made in America Office – May 2023
- Íæż½ã½ã Member, , testifies on Buy America – January 2024
- to address implementation challenges – February 2024
- Íæż½ã½ã Member, , testifies on Buy America – February 2024
- Íæż½ã½ã weighs in on removing long-standing FHWA waiver – May 2024
- Íæż½ã½ã and ARTBA Survey Members to Inform FHWA on Material Availability – May 2024
- OMB responds to Íæż½ã½ã and coalition allies’ request to address implementation challenges – August 2024
For more information, please contact Deniz Mustafa at Deniz.Mustafa@agc.org.