Notice of Proposed Temporary Waiver of Buy America Requirements for the Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program

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In order to deliver projects and meaningful results while ensuring robust adoption of Buy America standards, DOT is proposing to establish a temporary public interest waiver for projects funded under the new Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program. The waiver only applies to awards made within the first year (FY 2022) of funding for the new program, for which there may be limited cases where the Buy America requirements would apply for planning and prototyping activities. Given that this program is in its first year and DOT has not yet received applications, the waiver is intended to ensure that applicants consider the broadest possible range of technologies and solutions in their proposals for funding in FY 2022. Recipients of FY 2022 funds for Stage 1 activities are to collect data that will help inform the application of Buy America requirements to the funding of implementation activities under the program and identify any current gaps in the domestic availability of products that could potentially be filled by American suppliers.