Washington has been writing infrastructure checks for years. What changed is the fine print. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act tightened Buy American requirements across federally assisted surface transportation, water, and broadband projects, mandating that iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials be produced in the United States. Subsequent executive guidance hardened those rules further, requiring that waivers be publicly justified and narrowly granted. The result is a policy stack — tariffs on imported steel and equipment layered beneath statutory domestic-content requirements — that effectively disqualifies foreign-sourced heavy equipment from a widening share of state and local contract bids funded with federal dollars. That's not a policy preference. It's a procurement gate.
Trade & Tariffs
The Infrastructure Tariff Stack: Deere and Caterpillar When Buy American Gets Teeth
Federal infrastructure dollars now come with a domestic-content loyalty oath — and the two companies with the deepest U.S. manufacturing roots are first in line to collect.
