Biden to Sign “Made in America” Executive Order
President Biden will sign a “Made in America” executive order today, aimed at strengthening “Buy American” provisions, according to a White House statement.
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With this order, President Biden is ensuring that when the federal government spends taxpayer dollars, it spends the money on American goods, made by American workers using American-made components, according to the statement.
“This executive order fulfills President Biden’s promise to make Buy American real and close loopholes that allow companies to offshore production and jobs while still qualifying for domestic preferences,” the statement reads.
The order follows Biden’s campaign promise to sign a series of executive actions in his first week as President “to ensure the federal government is delivering on its obligation to use taxpayer dollars to Buy American products and support American supply chains,” according to the campaign website.
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The executive order states that funds spent by the federal government on goods and services are a powerful tool to support American workers and manufacturers.
“Contracting alone accounts for nearly $600 billion in federal spending. Federal law requires government agencies to give preferences to American firms, however, these preferences have not always been implemented consistently or effectively,” according to the statement.
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The goal of the order would be to use that $600 billion to help domestic factories and increase hiring, according to The Associated Press, which cited anonymous sources.
The executive order will direct agencies to close current loopholes in how domestic content is measured, and increase domestic content requirements. In addition, it will appoint a new senior leader in the Executive Office of the President in charge of the government’s Made in America policy approach; increase oversight of potential waivers to domestic preference laws; connect new businesses to contracting opportunities by requiring active use of supplier scouting by agencies; and direct a cross-agency review of all domestic preferences, according to the White House statement.
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As part of this plan and also as stated in his campaign, President Biden is proposing to establish a 28% corporate tax rate, plus a 10% offshoring penalty surtax, on profits of any overseas production by a U.S. company for sales back to the U.S. Companies will pay a 30.8% tax rate on any such profits, according to Biden’s campaign website.
Asked about these specifics during her Senate confirmation hearing last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the president’s objective “is to create incentives for American companies to create and maintain jobs at home. President Biden’s Offshoring Tax Penalty is specifically aimed at those who offshore manufacturing and service jobs to foreign nations in order to sell goods or provide services back to the American market when those jobs could have been done by U.S. workers,” according to a transcript of her remarks.
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