General Applicability Public Interest Waiver to Indian Tribes Proposed Extension of Manufactured Products Waiver
The Department of the Interior (DOI); Department of Agriculture (USDA); Department of Education (ED); Department of Energy (DOE); Department of Housing and Urban Development (HU...
Notice of proposed extension of waiver; request for comments.
SUMMARY:
The Department of the Interior (DOI); Department of Agriculture (USDA); Department of Education (ED); Department of Energy (DOE); Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); and Department of Commerce (DOC); (hereafter “the Agencies”), are proposing to issue an extension of the manufactured products element of the general applicability joint public interest waiver to Indian Tribes (issued on January 10, 2025).
DATES:
Written comments must be submitted online or by mail no later than November 23, 2026. For more information, see
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
.
ADDRESSES:
You may submit comments related to this notice by any of the following methods:
Electronically:
Go to
www.regulations.gov.
In the “Search”
( printed page 66872)
box, enter “DOI-2026-0232”. Follow the instructions to submit public comments. We post all comments.
Hand-deliver
or by
U.S. mail:
U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Grants Management, Made in America/Special Projects, ATTN: Kayla Blades, 1387 S Vinnell Way, Boise, ID 83709.
Email: DOI_Grants_BuyAmerica_Waiver@ios.doi.gov.
Please reference “Indian Tribes” in the subject line of the email. Comments received prior to the public comment closing date will be reviewed and considered by the Agencies.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Kayla Blades, Grants Management Officer, Office of Grants Management, (208) 266-7159; email:
kayla_blades@ios.doi.gov.
Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services for contacting Kayla Blades. Individuals outside of the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
This proposed extension of waiver would continue to waive the manufactured products requirement of section 70914 of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 117-58) (Buy America Preference) for Federal Financial Assistance agreements awarded to Indian Tribes through December 31, 2026. Recipients will be permitted to purchase non-compliant manufactured products, regardless of the Federal financial assistance amount. For Federal financial assistance issued prior to the effective date of the final waiver, the waiver would apply to funds not yet expended. The Waiver Type is Public Interest, the Waiver Level is General Applicability, All Regions. The waiver is applicable to Federal financial assistance obligated on or after the effective date of the final waiver, and before its expiration. This extension would expire on December 31, 2026.
The proposed waiver will be posted on each agency's public facing web page, and a notice of the proposed waiver will be posted to the Made in America website to satisfy the requirement to publish any BABA Project Waiver and provide the public with thirty (30) days to submit comments. The Agencies seek public and industry comments from all interested parties, particularly regarding common, critical manufactured products in infrastructure projects; the availability of BABA-compliant vendors, including those that are Native enterprises; current and anticipated availability of domestic products; and current and future states of domestic production and supply chains. Relevant information and comments will help the Agencies understand the facts and impacts surrounding this waiver request.
Justification for Waiver Extension
Compliance with the BABA manufactured products requirements continues to pose implementation challenges in Tribal communities. This extension of the manufactured products portion of the waiver is intended to allow infrastructure projects in Tribal communities to proceed while allowing Agencies time to examine further modifications to the waiver consistent with the President's mandate for strengthening Made in America implementation. This extension is also intended to allow agencies additional time to move toward efforts to bring Tribal recipients into fuller alignment with BABA requirements, including through strengthening and coordinating Agency guidance to tribes and refining compliance support, training, and technical assistance.
Public Availability of Comments
Before including your address, phone number, email address or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment—including your personal identifying information—may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
Authority:
Section 70914 of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA); Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 117-58) (Buy America Preference)
Troy W. Finnegan,
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Exercising the Delegated Authority of the Assistant Secretary—Policy, Management and Budget.
Use this for formal legal and research references to the published document.
91 FR 66871
Web Citation
Suggested Web Citation
Use this when citing the archival web version of the document.
“General Applicability Public Interest Waiver to Indian Tribes Proposed Extension of Manufactured Products Waiver,” thefederalregister.org (October 23, 2026), https://thefederalregister.org/documents/2026-21634/general-applicability-public-interest-waiver-to-indian-tribes-proposed-extension-of-manufactured-products-waiver.
www.regulations.gov
Pub. L. 117-58