## Subpart 25.6—American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—Buy American Act—Construction Materials

### 25.600 Scope of subpart.

This subpart implements section 1605 in Division A of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Pub. L. 111-5) (Recovery Act) and the Buy American Act. It applies to construction projects that use funds appropriated or otherwise provided by the Recovery Act.

### 25.601 Definitions.

As used in this subpart—

“Domestic construction material” means—

(1) An unmanufactured construction material mined or produced in the United States; or

(2) A construction material manufactured in the United States.

“Foreign construction material” means a construction material other than a domestic construction material.

“Manufactured construction material” means any construction material that is not unmanufactured construction material.

“Recovery Act designated country” means a World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement country, a Free Trade Agreement country, or a least developed country.

“Steel” means an alloy that includes at least 50 percent iron, between .02 and 2 percent carbon, and may include other elements.

“Unmanufactured construction material” means raw material brought to the construction site for incorporation into the building or work that has not been—

(1) Processed into a specific form and shape; or

(2) Combined with other raw material to create a material that has different properties than the properties of the individual raw materials.

### 25.602 Policy.

Except as provided in 25.603—

(a) None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by the Recovery Act may be used for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of a public building or public work (as defined at 22.401) unless—

(1) The public building or public work is located in the United States; and

(2) All of the iron, steel, and other manufactured goods used as construction material in the project are produced or manufactured in the United States.

(i) Production in the United States of the iron or steel used as construction material requires that all manufacturing processes must take place in the United States, except metallurgical processes involving refinement of steel additives. These requirements do not apply to steel or iron used as components or subcomponents of other manufactured construction material.

(ii) There is no requirement with regard to the origin of components or subcomponents in other manufactured construction material, as long as the manufacture of the construction material occurs in the United States.

(b) Use only domestic unmanufactured construction material, as required by the Buy American Act.

### 25.603 Exceptions.

(a) When one of the following exceptions applies, the contracting officer may allow the contractor to incorporate foreign construction materials without regard to the restrictions of section 1605 of the Recovery Act or the Buy American Act:

(1) Nonavailability. The head of the contracting activity may determine that a particular construction material is not mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities of a satisfactory quality. The determinations of nonavailability of the articles listed at 25.104(a) and the procedures at 25.103(b)(1) also apply if any of those articles are acquired as construction materials.

(2) Unreasonable cost. The contracting officer concludes that the cost of domestic construction material is unreasonable in accordance with 25.605.

(3) Inconsistent with public interest. The head of the agency may determine that application of the restrictions of section 1605 of the Recovery Act or the Buy American Act to a particular construction material would be inconsistent with the public interest.

(b) Determinations. When a determination is made, for any of the reasons stated in this section, that certain foreign construction materials may be used—

(1) The contracting officer shall list the excepted materials in the contract; and

(2) The head of the agency shall publish a notice in the Federal Register within two weeks after the determination is made, unless the construction material has already been determined in the FAR to be domestically nonavailable (see list at 25.104). The notice shall include—

(i) The title “Buy American Exception under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009”;

(ii) The dollar value and brief description of the project; and

(iii) A detailed justification as to why the restriction is being waived.

(c) Acquisitions under trade agreements.

(1) For construction contracts with an estimated acquisition value of $7,443,000 or more, also see Subpart 25.4. Offers of products determined to be eligible products per Subpart 25.4 shall receive equal consideration with domestic offers per Subpart 25.4.

(2) For purposes of the Recovery Act, designated countries do not include the Caribbean Basin Countries.

### 25.604 Preaward determination concerning the inapplicability of section 1605 of the Recovery Act or the Buy American Act.

(a) For any acquisition, an offeror may request from the contracting officer a determination concerning the inapplicability of section 1605 of the Recovery Act or the Buy American Act for specifically identified construction materials. The time for submitting the request is specified in the solicitation in paragraph (b) of either 52.225-22 or 52.225-24, whichever applies. The information and supporting data that must be included in the request are also specified in the solicitation in paragraphs (c) and (d) of either 52.225-21 or 52.225-23, whichever applies.

(b) Before award, the contracting officer must evaluate all requests based on the information provided and may supplement this information with other readily available information.

(c) Determination based on unreasonable cost of domestic construction material.

(1) Iron, steel, and other manufactured construction material. The contracting officer must compare the offered price of the contract using foreign manufactured construction material to the estimated price if all domestic manufactured construction material were used. If use of domestic manufactured construction material would increase the overall offered price of the contract by more than 25 percent, then the contracting officer shall determine that the cost of the domestic manufactured construction material is unreasonable.

(2) Unmanufactured construction material. The contracting officer must compare the cost of each foreign unmanufactured construction material to the cost of domestic unmanufactured construction material. If the cost of the domestic unmanufactured construction material exceeds the cost of the foreign unmanufactured construction material by more than 6 percent, then the contracting officer shall determine that the cost of the unmanufactured construction material is unreasonable.

### 25.605 Evaluating offers of foreign construction material.

(a) If the contracting officer has determined that an exception applies because the cost of certain domestic construction material is unreasonable, in accordance with section 25.604, then the contracting officer shall apply evaluation factors to the offer incorporating the use of such foreign construction material as follows:

(1) Use an evaluation factor of 25 percent, applied to the total offered price of the contract, if foreign iron, steel, or other manufactured goods are incorporated in the offer as construction material based on an exception for unreasonable cost requested by the offeror.

(2) In addition, use an evaluation factor of 6 percent applied to the cost of foreign unmanufactured construction material incorporated in the offer based on an exception for unreasonable cost requested by the offeror.

(3) Total evaluated price = offered price + (.25 x offered price, if (a)(1) applies) + (.06 x cost of foreign unmanufactured construction material, if (a)(2) applies).

(b) If two or more offers are equal in price, the contracting officer must give preference to an offer that does not include foreign construction material excepted at the request of the offeror on the basis of unreasonable cost.

(c) Offerors also may submit alternate offers based on use of equivalent domestic construction material to avoid possible rejection of the entire offer if the Government determines that an exception permitting use of a particular foreign construction material does not apply.

(d) If the contracting officer awards a contract to an offeror that proposed foreign construction material not listed in the applicable clause in the solicitation (paragraph (b)(3) of 52.225-21, or paragraph (b)(3) of 52.225-23), the contracting officer must add the excepted materials to the list in the contract clause.

### 25.606 Postaward determinations.

(a) If a contractor requests a determination regarding the inapplicability of section 1605 of the Recovery Act or the Buy American Act after contract award, the contractor must explain why it could not request the determination before contract award or why the need for such determination otherwise was not reasonably foreseeable. If the contracting officer concludes that the contractor should have made the request before contract award, the contracting officer may deny the request.

(b) The contracting officer must base evaluation of any request for a determination regarding the inapplicability of section 1605 of the Recovery Act or the Buy American Act made after contract award on information required by paragraphs (c) and (d) of the applicable clause at 52.225-21 or 52.225-23 and/or other readily available information.

(c) If a determination, under 25.603(a), is made after contract award that an exception to section 1605 of the Recovery Act or to the Buy American Act applies, the contracting officer must negotiate adequate consideration and modify the contract to allow use of the foreign construction material. When the basis for the exception is the unreasonable cost of a domestic construction material, adequate consideration is at least the differential established in 25.605(a).

### 25.607 Noncompliance.

The contracting officer must—

(a) Review allegations of violations of section 1605 of the Recovery Act or Buy American Act;

(b) Unless fraud is suspected, notify the contractor of the apparent unauthorized use of foreign construction material and request a reply, to include proposed corrective action; and

(c) If the review reveals that a contractor or subcontractor has used foreign construction material without authorization, take appropriate action, including one or more of the following:

(1) Process a determination concerning the inapplicability of section 1605 of the Recovery Act or the Buy American Act in accordance with 25.606.

(2) Consider requiring the removal and replacement of the unauthorized foreign construction material.

(3) If removal and replacement of foreign construction material incorporated in a building or work would be impracticable, cause undue delay, or otherwise be detrimental to the interests of the Government, the contracting officer may determine in writing that the foreign construction material need not be removed and replaced. A determination to retain foreign construction material does not constitute a determination that an exception to section 1605 of the Recovery Act or the Buy American Act applies, and this should be stated in the determination. Further, a determination to retain foreign construction material does not affect the Government’s right to suspend or debar a contractor, subcontractor, or supplier for violation of section 1605 of the Recovery Act or the Buy American Act, or to exercise other contractual rights and remedies, such as reducing the contract price or terminating the contract for default.

(4) If the noncompliance is sufficiently serious, consider exercising appropriate contractual remedies, such as terminating the contract for default. Also consider preparing and forwarding a report to the agency suspension or debarment official in accordance with Subpart 9.4. If the noncompliance appears to be fraudulent, refer the matter to other appropriate agency officials, such as the officer responsible for criminal investigation.