NTIA head Alan Davidson softens stance on ‘Buy America’ rules

The coming surge of broadband spending fueled by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is already creating headaches for the Commerce Department — particularly around the law’s Buy America provisions. The issue put National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Assistant Secretary Alan Davidson in a tough position at his first oversight hearing. Lawmakers on a House Energy and Commerce subpanel, responding to arguments made by the telecommunications industry, asked Davidson whether the administration will seek to waive the law’s Buy America requirements when it comes to communications equipment, or if it plans to water down a prohibition on purchasing fiber optic cable and optical transmission equipment built in China. “There has to be a high bar, and we have to be very smart and very tailored about any waivers that we give,” Davidson told Congress. That’s not a ‘no’; the administration can grant waivers to the Buy American requirement, albeit through a complex process coordinated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). According to the Congressional Research Service, the infrastructure bill requires that “manufactured goods must contain greater than 55 percent domestic content and be manufactured in the United States” to count as “American” for the purposes of Buy America rules.