Made in America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, today I reintroduce the ``Made in America Act'' with U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). Our bicameral and bipartisan bill would strengthen ``Buy America'' requirements for all major federal infrastructure programs, including federally funded highway, rail, transit, aviation, levee, and water projects.

The ``Made in America Act'' identifies federal programs that fund infrastructure not currently subject to ``Buy America'' standards and ensures that building materials used in these taxpayer-funded projects are produced domestically. When setting standards to determine which materials used in construction will be considered ``Made in America,'' the bill requires the Department of Commerce to ensure that their manufacturing processes support American jobs.

Congress is poised to make the most significant investment in our nation's infrastructure in nearly half a century. This is a once-in-a- generation opportunity to advance commonsense ``Buy America'' and ``Make it in America'' policies to rebuild and modernize our nation's crumbling infrastructure. In the process, we will create thousands of well-paying jobs that can never be outsourced and make America competitive in the 21st century.

Unfortunately, numerous Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports have confirmed that many of our nation's existing trade obligations often provide trading partners more opportunity to win American government procurement work than American businesses receive in return. The ``Made in America Act'' would take steps to correct this imbalance by ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent on American-made materials created by American workers and businesses.

Madam Speaker, Americans are right to expect that taxpayer dollars spent on infrastructure projects support domestic manufacturing. I want to thank my House colleagues for their support as the bill's original cosponsors. I urge all Members to join us is cosponsoring this critical legislation. As a senior member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, I plan to make the ``Made in America Act'' a majority priority in the 2021 surface transportation reauthorization and any infrastructure package.

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