Biden strengthened Buy American rules, but contractors still manufacture outside U.S.

President Joe Biden strengthened requirements for the government to buy U.S.-made goods, but the government still issues federal contracts to companies that make products outside the country. 

Biden's economic agenda emphasized rebuilding the nation's manufacturing capacity and keeping manufacturing jobs in the U.S. As part of that, he promised to give government contracts only to companies that make all their products in the U.S.

Biden did not stick to that promise. 

To buy only items made entirely in the U.S., or from companies that manufacture only in the U.S., would be impossible in the modern economy, William Reinsch, a trade specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said. Multinational corporations with manufacturing bases in several countries around the world often receive the most government contracts. 

Even when companies build products in the U.S. they often use global supply chains and source parts from outside the country. 

Nevertheless, Reinsch said Biden "probably did more than previous presidents to try to reach 100%" of contracts going to companies that manufacture in the U.S.

Biden worked to strengthen existing requirements that the government buy products that are mostly made in America. The Buy American Act, passed during the Great Depression in 1933, has required the U.S. government to buy more U.S.-made products. There have long been loopholes, exemptions and loose definitions of what counts as U.S.-made. 

Biden signed an executive order early in his presidency aimed at tightening Buy American rules.

His administration also issued a federal rule increasing what percentage of a product had to be American made to qualify for the Buy American law. The rule said that to comply with the law, a product must have at least 60% of its components made in the U.S., up from the previous 55% requirement. By 2029, that standard will increase to 75%.

Some top government contractors have manufacturing plants around the world. Defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Technologies Corp. have their defense manufacturing largely based in the U.S., but also operate manufacturing bases abroad.

Dell Technologies, which has received billions in federal contracts, operates factories in India, Poland, Malaysia and Ireland. Drugmaker Pfizer has production plants worldwide, including in India, France and Germany.

The federal government often also grants waivers to Buy American rules if a good — such as bananas, cocoa beans and chrome ore — is not readily available from a domestic source. But in October, Biden's administration proposed a rule to reduce the list of exempt items. The proposed change removed 70 products from the exemption, yielding the shortest list since the rules began. The rule has not taken effect yet and is open for public comments until Dec. 23. 

The $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Biden signed in 2021 included a "Build America Buy America" stipulation that requires the construction materials used in federally funded infrastructure projects to be sourced from the U.S.

Although Biden took steps to strengthen Buy American rules, he did not fulfill his promise that "not one" contract would go to a contractor that doesn't have products fully made in the U.S., a pledge that one expert called impossible in the modern economy.  We rate this Promise Broken.

PolitiFact chief correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this report.