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âBuy American.â It sounds like a familiar bumper sticker, like a sign you see in store windows.
Until now. Five days into his term, President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring federal contracting and procurement come from âAmerican made goods by American workers and with American-made component parts.â The executive order takes substantive steps to close loopholes in existing trade agreements that have long rendered so-called âBuy Americanâ provisions ineffective, while strengthening cross-agency oversight and enforcement.
How well this all works hinges on the enforcement, which is long overdue.
American manufacturing has been in decline for decades, with the federal government playing a frustrating role in its demise. The federal procurement process often leans to the lowest bidder, regardless of country of origin or quality of product. Americans pay the price when this happens. According to an Economic Policy Institute study, ever