Former President Joe Biden strengthened the federal government’s procurement policy to encourage domestic manufacturing, and even as President Donald Trump seeks to unwind much of his predecessor’s legacy, this looks to be an area of alignment. That means civil builders must prepare for heightened domestic procurement requirements stemming from both parties.

There was a marked increase of Buy American requirements during the previous Trump administration that continued under Biden, per a Nov. 11, 2024, alert authored by Eric Crusius, partner at Tampa, Florida-based law firm Holland and Knight. 

“Contractors should expect that trend will continue, perhaps even further than the current trajectory,” according to Crusius’ alert. 

Biden bolstered the existing Buy America requirements for federally financed infrastructure projects via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Build America, Buy America provision of the IIJA requires that the iron, steel, many construction materials and manufactured products used in federally funded infrastructure projects be domestically produced.

The Trump administration has temporarily frozen IIJA funding and subsequently ignored court orders to release it, according to The New York Times. However, that does not negate BABA — such a move would require an act of Congress, Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a partnership between union and environmental groups, said in a Jan. 23 webinar. The organization supports the policy and has released a BABA user guide.

“BABA was authorized by a supermajority in Congress and it has strong bipartisan support, and we’ve seen no indication from the new administration that it would be unsupportive,” Walsh said. 

Meanwhile, Trump issued at least three Buy American executive orders during his first term, including his 2017 Buy American and Hire American order, which aimed to protect U.S. workers and promote job growth. He also campaigned on renewing domestic manufacturing and looks poised to continue and expand American-made mandates. 

Trump and Buy America

Though Trump has not spoken about BABA specifically, he said he wants to reform America’s current trade agreements to favor U.S. manufacturing. 

To that end, Trump issued the America First Trade Policy executive order on Jan. 20. Among other things, it directs the U.S. Trade Representative to review the impact of trade agreements on the volume of federal procurement covered by Buy American and Hire American — though Biden revoked that order with his own domestic procurement policy — and to make recommendations to ensure that such agreements are being implemented in a way that favors U.S. workers and manufacturers. 

The president has ordered tariffs directed at Canada, Mexico and China — though he subsequently paused those for the U.S.’ neighbors — and on Feb. 11 implemented additional 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports. He also signed an executive order Feb. 13 enacting reciprocal tariffs for all current and potential trading partners. However, those tariffs could harm the U.S. building industry, according to a Feb. 12 news release from Fairfax, Virginia-based National Utility Contractors Association.

“NUCA urges the Trump Administration to reconsider the pending tariffs on steel and aluminum, at least with regards to materials used in domestic infrastructure projects. America’s construction industry already supports through practice and ‘Buy America’ regulations the use of American-manufactured products,” according to NUCA’s release.

There are additional ways that the president could use federal procurement policy to advance his agenda.

The Trump administration could further increase the required percentages of domestic content for supplies and construction materials, or further limit the availability of BAA waivers, said Vinson & Elkins legal experts in a Dec. 5 blog post. He could also leverage trade agreements.

“[Trump] could attempt to further strengthen and expand the reach of the BAA by limiting exemptions for products manufactured in countries that have entered into free trade agreements with the United States that require nondiscriminatory treatment in government procurement,” according to Vinson & Elkins’ post.