Congress Waters Down "Buy American" Amendments Congress killed tough “Buy American” provisions in the final version of the 2004 Defense authorization bill, in the face of opposition from the Bush administration and many defense contractors. The House had passed an amendment requiring that U.S. weapons systems have at least 65% American-made content, an increase over the current 50% requirement. That provision was deleted from the final bill. Also dropped was a requirement that contractors identify the source of all components of products they sold to the government. Instead, the bill directs the Defense Department to report levels of foreign procurement and the market sectors they affect, using existing data and requiring no new information from contractors. Instead of the tough provisions, Congress included several measures designed to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base without placing restrictions on Pentagon purchasing. One provision would offer contractors incentives to use American-made machine tools, protecting what House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) called “the centerpiece of American production, the machine tool industry of this country, which used to be second to none. “We have a provision in this bill, it is not a mandatory provision, so it is not going to make anybody have to go in and take out billions of dollars of machine tools, but it says that if you are an American contractor bidding on a DOD job, if you use an American machine tool instead of a foreign machine tool, you are going to get points in the competition,” he told the House Nov. 7. “And I think that is going to incentivize some of our companies, big and small, to say instead of looking at another foreign-made machine tool, let us call up that American company and see what they have.” Those incentives are part of a Defense Industrial Base Capabilities Fund that is intended to support U.S. production of critical military parts and materials. Rep. Hunter was the prime sponsor of the original “Buy American” amendment. Both the Bush administration and the defense contractor community said it would harm military readiness. The Information Technology Association of America said the language would have made it virtually impossible for the military to buy off-the-shelf IT products such as PCs, laptops and cell phones, which have many foreign-made components. ITAA General Counsel Joe Tasker told Set-Aside Alert the group is satisfied with the final bill. “We will be able to continue to supply commercial products that the government needs,” he said. In a news conference, Hunter said he was pleased that the Senate agreed to drop what he called a “poison pill,” a provision that would have exempted certain American allies from all “Buy American” requirements. The bill also includes most elements of the Services Acquisition Reform Act (SARA). It provides for increased use of performance-based services contracts. “This is a huge win for fans of good government,” SARA’s sponsor, House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) said in a statement. “While procurement reform may not be the sexiest issue before Congress, improving the way we acquire goods and services can help make the government leaner, meaner, more responsible and more accountable to taxpayers.” The House passed the bill Oct. 7. It was pending in the Senate at press time.