Future water infrastructure projects that receive funding through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) program would only be able use American-made iron and steel products under a pair of bills introduced by Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives this month.
One proposal from Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.), the Buy American Improvement Act (H.R. 904), would permanently apply Buy American rules for iron and steel to a range of federal infrastructure funding programs, including the DWSRF and the Rural Water Supply Program. The bill would allow EPA to waive the requirement for certain DWSRF-funded projects after publishing a justification in the Federal Register, but the legislation does not set parameters for how EPA would determine whether a waiver is appropriate.
A similar bill introduced by Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), H.R. 939, the Buy America for Drinking Water Extension Act, would permanently apply Buy American rules to the DWSRF program specifically.
Congress has annually imposed Buy American requirements on the DWSRF since the 2014 fiscal year, and legislation enacted last December extended this requirement through the 2017 fiscal year. Congress permanently applied Buy American rules to the Clean Water SRF in 2014, and these latest proposals to extend the same requirements to the drinking water program may be inspired in part by President Trump’s enthusiasm for promoting domestic manufacturing.