US Senator Debbie Stabenow released a report Monday which found that federal agencies used loopholes to spend over 92-billion dollars on foreign contracts between 2008 and 2016.
The report claims loopholes in the Buy America Act have been abused, allowing an excess of taxpayer dollars to support foreign manufacturing at the expense of American companies.
Senator Stabenow said one exemption allows the federal government to purchase from foreign manufacturers if there is no American manufacturer that makes what the government is looking for.
“And there have been cases where they simply, according to the inspector general, they simply have been wrong in saying it’s not available.”
Stabenow said she wants to tighten loopholes that allow federal agencies to choose foreign manufacturers over American ones.
“I’ve introduced the Make it in America Act which will tighten up these loopholes and narrow these exemptions and also provide higher transparency on foreign purchases and more training for the people that are involved in making those judgments.”
Stabenow said at least two Michigan companies, RAMI in Grand Haven, and Xalt in Midland, have been passed over in favor of cheaper foreign contracts.
She said the Department of Defense is far and away the worst offender. The DoD accounted for 91 percent of money spent on foreign goods using loopholes between 2008 and 2016.
The US Department of Defense did not respond to our request for comment.
You can read the full report here: https://www.stabenow.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Buy%20American%20Report%20Final.pdf