10/10/2023
By Jacqueline Black
The Office of Management and Budget is revising the OMB Guidance for Grants and Agreements. The revisions are limited in scope to support implementation of the Build America, Buy America Act provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and to clarify existing provisions related to domestic preferences. These revisions provide further guidance on implementing the statutory requirements and improve Federal financial assistance management and transparency.
The OMB is revising its guidance in title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR) to add a new part 184 and revise 2 CFR 200.322. The revisions implement the requirement for the Director of OMB to issue guidance to the head of each Federal agency to assist in the implementation of the requirements of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA), Public Law 117–58, 135 Stat. 429, 70901–70927, Nov. 15, 2021.
As required by BABA, the new part 184 of 2 CFR provides clear and consistent guidance to Federal agencies about how to apply the domestic content procurement preference (Buy America or BABA preference) as set forth in BABA to Federal awards for infrastructure projects.
BABA 70915. For example, the new part 184 includes definitions for key terms, including iron or steel products, manufactured products, construction materials, and materials identified in section 70917(c) (section 70917(c) materials) of BABA. These definitions provide a common system for Federal agencies to distinguish between the product categories established under the statutory text in BABA. The new part also offers standards that define “all manufacturing processes” in the case of construction materials.
The new part 184 also includes guidance for determining the cost of components of manufactured products. The part 184 text uses a modified version of the “cost of components” test found in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) at 48 CFR 25.003, which is used for Federal procurement. Using this approach for determining the cost of components of manufactured products in the context of Federal financial assistance aims to provide a consistent approach for industry, with only minor modifications which are explained in this document.
The new part 184 also includes guidance on proposing and issuing Buy America waivers. For example, based on the statutory text of BABA, it restates the circumstances under which a waiver may be justified. The new part also includes guidance on the type of process that a Federal agency should implement to allow recipients to request waivers, including the process a Federal agency should follow in issuing proposed and final waivers.
The revised provision in 2 CFR part 200 specifies that Federal agencies providing Federal financial assistance for infrastructure projects must implement the Buy America preferences set forth in 2 CFR part 184, as required under section 70914(a) BABA, as of the effective date of the guidance, unless specified otherwise.