What is BABA?
In 2021 the U.S. federal government enacted the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“IIJA”) to promote strategic investments in U.S. infrastructure. The IIJA includes a Build America, Buy America (“BABA”) provision to ensure that all the funds made available go towards the U.S. government’s use of products and materials manufactured in the United States. BABA requires any project funded or supplemented by the IIJA to use manufactured products that comply with BABA. For a manufactured product to comply with BABA, the product must be manufactured in the U.S. and the cost of components that are manufactured in the U.S. must be >55% of the total cost of all components of the manufactured product.
Disclaimer: Please note that the BABA requirement is different to other requirements established by the U.S. federal government such as the “Buy American Act” or “Made in America” preferences. Requirements under the CHIPS Act or the Inflation Reduction Act will also likely be different to those of BABA. Customers should review the specific terms of a bid or of the documents detailing how the federal government is funding a project before making any purchasing decisions.
