Biden signs executive order aimed at strengthening US manufacturing
Ahead of signing a "Made in America" executive order Monday, Biden delivered remarks on how he was fulfilling a long-time campaign promise to increase the amount of federal spending that goes to American companies.
"The previous administration didn't take it seriously enough," Biden began. "The result: Tens of billions of American taxpayer dollar supporting foreign jobs and foreign industries."
"I'll be signing an executive order in just a moment tightening the existing buy-American policies and go further," he continued. "That starts with stopping federal agencies from waiving buy-American requirements with impunity as has been going on. If an agency wants to issue a waiver to say, 'We're not going to buy an American product as part of this project, we're going to buy a foreign product,' they have to come to the White House and explain it to us."
The federal government spends about $600 billion on contracting per year, and there are already rules in place governing how taxpayer dollars can be spent, how much foreign products can be purchased, and how many foreign components can be brought to the U.S. and assembled here. However, waivers and loopholes allow even more foreign product to be purchased than the rules state.
Biden’s executive order aims to close those loopholes and cut down on the waivers, as well as order an increase in domestic content. It will also redefine what can count as domestic content, create a public website so U.S. companies can more easily see government contract business and determine whether they could make a more competitive bid for it.
The executive order also creates a new senior role at the Office of Management and Budget to oversee the implementation of these new efforts.
Biden signed the order after brief remarks and opened the floor to reporter questions.
-ABC News' Sarah Kolinovsky and Molly Nagle