Buy American Act

Buy American Act The Buy American Act is an attempt by the government to protect domestic labor by providing a preference for American goods in the governmental purchases. It was put in place in 1933 and has been amended four times after its placement. The most major amendment took place in 1979 when Congress passed the Trade Agreements Act. In order to be labeled an American product, the place of origin to the product of service has to be of the United States of America. The nationality of the contractor is not the determining factor. The Buy American Act applies to direct procurement by the federal government. This act requires the purchase of: * Mined and/or produced unmanufactured goods, supplies, and material with in the United States of America * Manufactured goods produced mainly from United States materials. “The primary purpose of this Act is to discourage the government form buying foreign products. There are six exceptions in the Buy American Act: 1. Items to be used outside the United States 2. Domestic items that are unreasonably priced. (Unless an agency determines otherwise, the offered price of domestic item is considered unreasonable when the lowest acceptable foreign offers by more than 6%, if the domestic offers is from a large business or more than 12% of the domestic offer is from a small business). 3. Information technology that is a commercial item. 4. Situations in which compliance with the Buy America can Act would not be in the government’s best interest. 5. Items that are not mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities. 6. Items purchased specifically for commissary resale (Stanberry, 2008).”
I believe the Buy American Act has many benefits for the United States. It made it possible for: * More American workers to be hired * More American factories to be built * More revenue would fill the U.S. Treasury * Both the

References: Buy America works: Longstanding United States policy enhances the job creating effect of government spending February 2010. (2010, February). Retrieved from http://www.mcwanebuyamerican.com/pdfs/buyamericanworks.pdf Stanberry, S. A. (2008). Federal contracting made easy. Management Concepts. Stewart, T., & Drake, E. (2009, February). Buy America: key to America economic recovery. Retrieved from http://assets.usw.org/action_center/economy/PDFs/buyamericalawsreport.pdf