U.S. DOT Announces Buy America Waiver for De Minimis Costs and Small Grants

Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a public interest Waiver of Buy America Requirements for De Minimis Costs and Small Grants applicable to awards that are obligated on or after August 16, 2023. DOT sent out a notice on August 22 to highlight the parameters of the waiver as it applies to awards that either 1) have a total value of the non-compliant products of no more than the lesser of $1 million or 5% of total application costs for the project; or 2) the total amount of Federal financial assistance applied to the project, through awards or subawards, is below $500,000.

The waiver is applicable to both the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Buy America Requirement for steep, iron and manufactured products and to the Build America, Buy America Act’s construction materials requirement. It does not apply to items already subject to a product-specific waiver, e.g. FTA’s Partial Waiver for Vans and Minivans. To read the recently issued waiver, click here. Additional information can also be found on the respective Buy America websites for DOT and FTA.