“President Biden’s Jan. 25 executive order to direct more of the Federal government’s spending to the benefit of American businesses has a larger focus on commodity and non-tech goods, but may end up extending to commercially available IT products…”
“The order aims to put new policy muscle behind a variety of existing ‘Made in America’ laws that direct preference in Federal buying to U.S.-made goods, and notes that existing law covers ‘iron, steel, and manufactured goods,’ as well as maritime transport services.
Despite the focus of existing laws on those non-tech kinds of products, the executive order also directs the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council to review ‘existing constraints on the extension of the requirements in Made in America Laws to information technology that is a commercial item.’
The FAR Council is also directed to ‘develop recommendations for lifting these constraints’ on IT products to further promote the order’s policies.
Under the order, Federal agency heads are directed to consider suspending or revising existing arrangements that run counter to the White House directive, and proposing new actions to enforce the policy…” Read the full article here.
Source: Biden’s ‘Buy American’ EO May End up Extending to IT Gear – By John Curran, January 26, 2021. MeriTalk.
