Executive Order on Ensuring the Future Is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers

Acting under the constitutional and statutory powers of the presidency, this Executive Order establishes a comprehensive federal policy to use the government’s purchasing power to strengthen domestic industry and support American workers. Rather than treating “Buy American” requirements as a formality, the order turns them into a coordinated strategy: federal agencies are directed to favor U.S.-made goods, materials, and services whenever the law permits, and to do so in a transparent, accountable way. At the same time, the order seeks to modernize how exceptions are granted, ensuring that waivers are carefully reviewed, publicly visible, and reserved for cases where truly necessary.

Core Policy: Using Federal Spending to Support U.S. Production

The central idea of the order is that federal financial assistance and procurement should, as much as possible, flow to goods and services produced in the United States. Agencies are encouraged to choose suppliers and contractors that help American firms compete in strategic sectors and create or sustain good jobs domestically.

To make this policy meaningful, the order emphasizes that decisions to waive domestic preference rules should not be routine or automatic. Instead, waiver authority is expected to rest with senior leaders within each agency, where appropriate and lawful, so that these decisions are made with a clear sense of responsibility and visibility.

“Made in America” Laws and Waivers: The Legal Framework

The order uses the term “Made in America Laws” to refer broadly to all statutes, regulations, rules, and prior executive orders that require or favor the purchase of U.S.-made goods, products, and materials using federal funds. This category includes laws that specifically reference “Buy America” or “Buy American,” and covers items such as iron, steel, and manufactured goods offered in the U.S. market. It also extends to maritime shipping preferences like those found in the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (the Jones Act).

A “waiver” in this context is any exception to these domestic preference requirements, along with the procedures and criteria an agency uses to grant such exceptions. The order treats waivers as an important but carefully controlled tool, not a loophole to be used casually.

Reviewing and Realigning Existing Agency Actions

Agency heads are instructed to examine existing rules, policies, and practices that may conflict with the new procurement policy. Where the law allows, agencies are asked to consider suspending, revising, rescinding, or supplementing earlier actions so that they align with the goal of maximizing U.S. content and supporting American workers.

This review is to be carried out in accordance with applicable law, including the Administrative Procedure Act, meaning agencies must still follow required processes for rulemaking and administrative decisions. The aim is not to bypass legal safeguards, but to ensure that the government’s own internal rules reflect the updated policy direction.

Creating the Made in America Office

A key institutional reform in the order is the creation of the Made in America Office within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This office is led by a Made in America Director, appointed by the OMB Director. The new office serves as a central hub for reviewing proposed waivers and coordinating federal efforts to favor domestic production.

Before an agency grants a waiver, it must generally submit a description and detailed justification to the Made in America Director. OMB, through this office, must then establish what information agencies need to provide, and set a firm timeline — no more than 15 business days — for either reviewing those waivers or deciding to waive the review requirement itself. This system is designed to balance speed and oversight.

Centralized Review of Waivers

The Made in America Director reviews each proposed waiver unless OMB has explicitly exempted that category or type of waiver from review. If the Director concludes that a proposed waiver is consistent with applicable law and with the policy of favoring U.S. production, the granting agency is notified in writing that it may proceed.

If, instead, the Director determines that the waiver would conflict with the law or with the policy objectives of the order, the waiver is sent back to the agency with a written explanation. Agency heads may disagree and respond in writing, and any conflict between the Made in America Director and an agency head is to be resolved using procedures similar to those in Executive Order 12866, which governs regulatory review within OMB.

When agencies face statutory deadlines that require faster action than the standard review process allows, they must notify the Made in America Director as soon as possible and comply with the order’s requirements to the greatest extent practicable. The order makes clear that it does not displace or override specific legal authorities that agencies already possess.

Considering Unfair Trade Practices in Cost Comparisons

Before granting a waiver based on public interest considerations, agencies must evaluate whether the apparent cost advantage of a foreign-sourced product is driven by unfair trade practices — such as dumped or injuriously subsidized steel, iron, or manufactured goods. If helpful, agencies may consult the International Trade Administration in making this assessment.

Any findings about dumping or injurious subsidization must be factored into the waiver decision. This step ensures that lower prices abroad are not simply the result of unfair practices that harm U.S. producers and workers.

Public Transparency Through a Central Website

To make federal procurement more transparent, the order directs the General Services Administration (GSA) to create a public website listing all proposed waivers and indicating whether they have been approved. The site should be structured so that manufacturers, workers, and other stakeholders can easily find and track waivers relevant to their sectors. It must also list contact information for each agency responsible for those waivers.

OMB, through the Made in America Director, must report proposed waivers to GSA, including their descriptions and justifications, as well as their outcomes. GSA is then required, within five days and subject to legal and national security constraints, to publish this information on the public site.

Supplier Scouting and Support for Domestic Firms

The order recognizes that agencies may not always be aware of domestic suppliers capable of meeting their needs. To address this, agencies are encouraged, where appropriate and lawful, to collaborate with the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).

Through this collaboration, agencies can conduct “supplier scouting” to identify U.S. companies — especially small and medium-sized enterprises — that can produce the goods, products, and materials needed for federal contracts. This linkage between procurement and industrial support helps ensure that domestic options are considered before turning to foreign suppliers.

Strengthening the Buy American Act Through Regulatory Changes

Within 180 days, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR Council) is instructed to consider changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) that would reinforce the Buy American Act of 1933. These potential amendments include:

1. Replacing the component test. Instead of relying on a test focused on the origin of individual components, the new approach would measure domestic content based on the value added through U.S. production and job-supporting economic activity.
   
   
2. Raising domestic content thresholds. The percentage of U.S. content required for a product or construction material to qualify as “domestic” would be increased, strengthening the practical impact of Buy American rules.
   
   
3. Increasing price preferences. The financial preference given to domestic products in competitive bidding could be raised, making it more attractive for agencies to award contracts to U.S.-made goods and materials.
   
   

The FAR Council must seek public comment on any proposed changes, consider those comments carefully, and issue a final rule if doing so is appropriate and consistent with law and national security.

Updating the List of Nonavailable Articles

The FAR includes a list of items considered not reasonably available from domestic sources. Before updating this list, the Director of OMB, through the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), must review any proposed changes in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Made in America Director.

This review must pay particular attention to economic analyses and market research to determine whether a product truly cannot be mined, produced, or manufactured in sufficient quantity and quality in the United States. The resulting findings are then shared with the FAR Council to inform its decision-making. The goal is to ensure that items are not labeled “nonavailable” when domestic capacity actually exists or could reasonably be developed.

Applying “Made in America” Requirements to Commercial IT

The order also addresses information technology that qualifies as a “commercial item,” an area where Made in America requirements have often been constrained. The FAR Council is directed to examine existing limitations on applying domestic preference rules to commercial IT and to develop recommendations for easing or removing those constraints where appropriate and lawful.

This reflects the increasingly central role of digital infrastructure and software in the federal mission and recognizes that promoting domestic capabilities in this sector is strategically important.

Reporting Requirements and Ongoing Oversight

Within 180 days, each agency head must submit a report to the Made in America Director outlining:

• How the agency is implementing and complying with Made in America Laws;
  
  
• How it is using any longstanding or government-wide waivers, including whether those waivers are consistent with the new policy; and
  
  
• Recommendations to better align the agency’s operations with the policy of maximizing domestic content.
  
  

After this initial report, agencies must report every two years. These bi-annual reports must cover:

• Ongoing implementation and compliance;
  
  
• Analyses of goods, products, materials, and services not covered by Made in America Laws or covered by waivers;
  
  
• Spending driven by waivers under the Trade Agreements Act, broken down by country of origin; and
  
  
• Further recommendations to advance the policy goals.
  
  

This reporting structure turns the policy into a continuous process rather than a one-time directive.

Federal Property and Products Offered to the Public

Within 180 days, the Administrator of General Services must recommend ways to ensure that products offered to the general public on federal property — such as in federal buildings or at government-operated facilities — are procured in line with the policy favoring U.S.-made goods. This extends the Made in America strategy beyond internal operations to the broader public-facing footprint of the federal government.

Relationship to Earlier Executive Orders

The new order reshapes the previous landscape of “Buy American” directives. Several earlier executive orders are explicitly revoked, including:

• Executive Order 13788 (Buy American and Hire American),
  
  
• Section 5 of Executive Order 13858 (Strengthening Buy-American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects), and
  
  
• Executive Order 13975 (Encouraging Buy American Policies for the United States Postal Service).
  
  

In addition, Executive Orders 10582 and 13881 are superseded wherever they conflict with the new order. This consolidation clarifies that the new framework is now the primary guidance for federal domestic preference policy.

Severability and Legal Limits

The order contains a standard severability clause: if any provision or its application to a particular person or situation is found invalid, the rest of the order remains in effect. This ensures that a partial legal challenge does not undo the entire policy framework.

Finally, the order underscores that it does not alter existing statutory authorities of agencies or of the OMB Director. It must be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriated funds. It also does not create any enforceable rights or benefits for private parties in court. In other words, it directs internal federal practice and policy, but it is not designed to serve as a direct legal basis for claims against the government.

In sum, this Executive Order transforms “Buy American” from a set of scattered requirements into a coordinated, data-driven, and transparent federal strategy. By centralizing waiver review, strengthening content rules, increasing public visibility, and integrating industrial and trade policy considerations, it aims to ensure that future federal spending more directly supports production “made in all of America, by all of America’s workers.”

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