Build America Buy America: Companies Self-Certify Domestic Production for the BEAD Program

October 16, 2024

By: Will Arbuckle, Senior Policy Advisor, NTIA

President Biden and Vice President Harris made a historic commitment to connect everyone in America to affordable, reliable high-speed Internet service while creating good-paying jobs and boosting American manufacturing. These investments are, in part, thanks to efforts made by the Biden-Harris Administration to enforce Buy American and impose Made in America requirements, going further than any previous Administration to reinforce these actions.

Today, NTIA and the Department of Commerce took another step toward realizing that goal.

On July 30th, 2024, NTIA published information about how Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program stakeholders can show compliance with the Build America, Buy America (BABA) requirement. One aspect of this compliance framework is the BABA Self Certification list for the BEAD Program.

[Link]

Today the Department of Commerce released the first version of this Self Certification list, which allows manufacturers who have invested in domestic manufacturing to voluntarily 'certify' - at the risk of federal penalty - that certain equipment they make meets the domestic manufacturing requirement listed in the BABA waiver for the BEAD Program.

This list is a direct response from manufacturer feedback that NTIA heard during the creation of the BABA waiver for the BEAD Program. Numerous companies expressed concern that their domestic manufacturing investment may be undercut by companies falsely claiming BABA compliance. Giving companies a self-certification option, with the safeguards of federal penalties for misrepresentations, helps create a level playing field and provide an additional layer of compliance with the BABA requirement. BEAD grantees and subgrantees will also still be responsible for confirming that equipment is compliant with BABA, consistent with grants law and regulations.

In this first version of the Self-Certification list (linked under "Approved Waivers"), nearly twenty companies have proactively self certified that they are making broadband equipment in the U.S that meets the domestic manufacturing requirement in the BABA waiver for the BEAD Program. NTIA will update the list as additional companies submit or amend the Self Certification submission form.

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