Title 49 › SUBTITLE VII — AVIATION PROGRAMS › PART E — MISCELLANEOUS › CHAPTER 501 — BUY-AMERICAN PREFERENCES › § 50103
The FAA can pick a U.S. company instead of a foreign winner for certain grant-related contracts if rules are met. The FAA Administrator must decide and the Secretary of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative must agree that choosing the U.S. company is in the public interest, taking U.S. trade obligations into account. The U.S. bid can be no more than 6 percent higher. The final product must be fully assembled in the United States and at least 51 percent of it must be produced in the United States. The preference cannot be used if national security requires otherwise or if the Trade Representative says it would break multilateral or other international trade agreements. The rule only applies to contracts tied to grants under sections 44511, 44512, or 44513 when money was authorized by section 48102(a), (b), or (d) for the fiscal years ending September 30, 1991 and September 30, 1992, and when a solicitation was issued after November 5, 1990. Definitions: "domestic firm" = a business formed and doing business in the United States; "foreign firm" = not a domestic firm. The FAA Administrator must report to Congress on foreign-made awards in those two fiscal years, on contracts that met the U.S. rules but were blocked by the Trade Representative for treaty reasons, and on contracts actually made under this rule.
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Citation
49 U.S.C. § 50103
Title 49, Transportation
Last Updated
Sep 22, 2026
Release point: 119-110