Waiver of Buy America Requirements for the Pacific Island Territories and the Freely Associated States

الملخص

The Department of Transportation (DOT) seeks to maximize the use of American-made products and materials in all federally funded projects as part of the Biden-Harris Administration's implementation of the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). In this notice, DOT is taking action to finalize a temporary general applicability waiver of the requirements of section 70914(a) of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA), included in BIL, and related domestic preference statutes administered by DOT and its Operating Administrations (OAs) for federal financial assistance awarded by DOT and its OAs for infrastructure projects located in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and American Samoa, collectively referred to as the "Pacific Island territories." The waiver also applies to discretionary grant assistance provided by DOT and its OAs to the Freely Associated States (the Republic of Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Federated States of Micronesia) in the Pacific that are subject to a domestic preference statute. As it applies to the Freely Associated States, the waiver does not include BABA, which only applies to infrastructure projects in the Uni