US Senate Buy America bill targets China in infrastructure spending
Synopsis
A rare bipartisan moment in a divided US Senate, the Build America, Buy America Compliance Act targets a quiet but consequential gap: federal agencies have been sidestepping domestic sourcing rules for years, letting taxpayer infrastructure dollars fund foreign manufacturers including China. The bill demands annual agency reports, Federal Register publication, and a path to replace blanket waivers with project-specific ones.
Key Takeaways
Senators Tammy Baldwin and Jim Banks introduced the Build America, Buy America Compliance Act on 27 April 2025 .
The bill mandates annual agency compliance reports submitted to the Made in America Office and Congress .
All reports must be published in the Federal Register to ensure public transparency.
Non-compliant agencies must provide timelines and steps to achieve compliance, replacing broad waivers with targeted ones.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing and the United Steelworkers union have both endorsed the legislation.
The bill builds on the BABA Act enacted in 2021 under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Bipartisan legislation introduced in the US Senate on 27 April 2025 seeks to tighten enforcement of domestic sourcing rules in federally funded infrastructure projects, with lawmakers arguing that American taxpayer money continues to flow to foreign manufacturers — including strategic competitors like China. The bill, called the Build America, Buy America Compliance Act, was unveiled by Senator Tammy Baldwin and Senator Jim Banks and is designed to close implementation gaps in existing procurement law.
What the Bill Proposes
The legislation would require the head of each federal agency to submit an annual report to the Made in America Office and Congress, detailing how the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act is being applied across all infrastructure-related financial assistance programmes. Agencies must specify which programmes are fully compliant and which are not.
For non-compliant programmes, agencies would be required to provide a clear timeline and concrete steps toward compliance — including efforts to replace broad waivers with targeted, project-specific waivers wherever possible. All such reports must be published in the Federal Register, a step sponsors say will enhance transparency and accountability across federal departments.
Why Lawmakers Are Acting Now
The bill responds to concerns that, years after passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, federal agencies have partially or fully avoided implementing the BABA Act for certain programmes. As a result, taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects have continued to rely on imported materials, according to the bill's sponsors.
Senator Baldwin framed the measure in economic terms:
Point of View
Federal agencies are still routing taxpayer dollars to foreign suppliers through waivers and loopholes. The BABA Act was supposed to fix this in 2021. That it hasn't — and that a new enforcement bill is now needed — raises serious questions about bureaucratic resistance to domestic procurement mandates. The bipartisan sponsorship is notable in a polarised Senate, but endorsements from the Alliance for American Manufacturing and United Steelworkers signal this is as much a labour-politics play as a supply-chain security measure. Whether the reporting mandate translates into actual compliance depends entirely on whether the Made in America Office has the teeth to act on what agencies disclose.
NationPress
1 May 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Build America, Buy America Compliance Act?
It is a bipartisan US Senate bill introduced on 27 April 2025 by Senators Tammy Baldwin and Jim Banks, designed to enforce domestic sourcing rules in federally funded infrastructure projects. The bill requires federal agencies to submit annual compliance reports and publish them in the Federal Register, closing gaps in the existing BABA Act enacted in 2021.
Why are US senators introducing this bill now?
Lawmakers say federal agencies have partially or fully avoided implementing the Build America, Buy America Act for certain programmes since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed, allowing taxpayer-funded projects to continue using imported materials from foreign manufacturers including China. The new bill seeks to force accountability through mandatory reporting.
What does the bill require federal agencies to do?
Each federal agency head must submit an annual report to the Made in America Office and Congress identifying all infrastructure assistance programmes, specifying which are BABA-compliant and which are not, and providing timelines and steps for non-compliant programmes to achieve compliance. All reports must be published in the Federal Register.
Who supports the Build America, Buy America Compliance Act?
The Alliance for American Manufacturing, represented by president Scott Paul, and the United Steelworkers union have both endorsed the legislation, aligning industry and labour interests behind the domestic procurement push.
How does this bill relate to the 2021 BABA Act?
The 2021 Build America, Buy America Act, enacted as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, requires federally funded projects to use American-made iron, steel, construction materials, and manufactured products. The new Compliance Act is an enforcement mechanism designed to ensure agencies actually implement those existing requirements rather than bypass them through broad waivers.
