Perhaps fed up with watching American companies being shut out of China’s $500 billion domestic procurement market for years, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers are looking to fight back by forming the Congressional Buy American Caucus.

Formed in April, the group of 16 lawmakers held their initial meeting in June, where experts on domestic procurement policies discussed the necessity of strengthening the nation’s Buy American laws, including Scott Boos with the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Laurence Lasoff, an expert on Department of Defense procurement practices, and Dan LaPre with the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition.

Members of the caucus are looking to strengthen the nation’s Buy American law which has been on the books for over 75 years. They say that over the years the law has been largely neglected and rarely enforced.

“It is time we bring manufacturing jobs back to the American people,” said Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), a co-chair of the caucus, in a press release. “Taxpayer dollars do not need to be spent on foreign products when an American company can manufacture the same high-quality goods right here. We need to remember what made this country great and support our own products.”

In 2008 alone, the government granted 65,000 waivers to the Buy American law, a 450 percent increase from the previous year. In 2007, the Department of Defense granted 14,159 waivers worth more than $5.7 billion in taxpayer dollars, according to The Alliance for American Manufacturing.

“When I tell people in Connecticut that billions of our federal tax dollars are spent on foreign contractors to outfit our military, they are shocked because it’s nonsensical. While ‘Buy American’ is wildly popular across the country, we need to make the case to Congress that we must act to keep more American tax dollars here and create manufacturing jobs. I’m thrilled with the traction we are gaining on this issue, and I feel the momentum shifting,” the other co-chair of the caucus, Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in a press releases.

Among the American people, the momentum has already shifted. According to The Alliance for American Manufacturing, 84 percent of Americans supported the domestic procurement provisions in the stimulus package.

Although China has been an official World Trade Organization member for nearly a decade, it has yet to sign the organization’s Agreement on Government Procurement Its current government procurement policy is discriminatory toward foreign businesses, often shutting out American companies on benign and relatively small contracts. At the same times, China’s economy thrives with the help of access to America’s $1.7 trillion domestic procurement market.

While Chinese companies make billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars providing goods for everything form roads, bridges and tanks, American companies are left on the outside looking in at China’s lucrative domestic procurement market – something the Congressional Buy American Caucus wishes to change. If successful, it would go a long way toward providing America’s manufacturing base with relief from unfair competition.

“Unfortunately, many of our national laws like unfair trade agreements and loose rules on federal procurement have had a devastating effect on our domestic manufacturing base,” Jones said. “America cannot retain its status as a superpower if it is dependent on foreign countries like communist China for the bulk of goods we consume. One part of the solution is to do a much better job of making sure U.S. taxpayers dollars are spent on products made by American workers.”

Print PDF