House Members Call for U.S. to Maintain 'Buy American' in TPP

The U.S. should not weaken its “long-standing Buy American policies” by requiring all companies operating in TPP signatory nations to be treated equally with U.S. firms in government procurement contracts, said a bipartisan group of more than a 100 House Democratic lawmakers in a letter that continues to circulate in the chamber. Reps. Donna Edwards, D-Md., and Walter Jones, R-N.C., are leading the circulation of the letter intended to be submitted to President Barack Obama. The letter has so far garnered 121 signatures, said a spokeswoman for Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a signatory to the letter. “We know that you are eager to finalize a TPP, so we urge you to reconsider the current ‘national treatment’ requirements included in TPP’s procurement chapter,” says the letter. “The recently-passed Fiscal Year 2015 Commerce, Justice, Science House Appropriations bill that funds the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative explicitly forbids expenditure of funds to negotiate trade agreement terms that would require a waiver of Buy American policy and we hope this will become U.S law.” Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., offered the Buy American Act amendment to the appropriations legislation (see 14060202).