San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) recently adopted a Buy America bid preference system that will help keep their “Fleet of the Future” made in America.

According to a statement from BART, this first-of-its-kind policy scores bids for federally funded rail procurements by using a formula that considers the domestic content level of a product.  By giving preference to American rail car manufacturers, BART hopes to create American jobs while modernizing their fleet of rail cars—many of which are amongst the oldest in the nation.

The policy goes into effect on January 1, 2012, and will play a crucial role in the bidding process for manufacturers interested in supplying BART’s $3-billion Fleet of the Future project.

We’re glad to see that BART (in stark contrast to the procurement policies of former Governor Schwarzenegger) is working to create jobs through Buy America policies.

As we demonstrated in our February 2010 study, Buy America is a proven job creation tool that is broadly supported by Congress, the American people, and hundreds of local governments throughout the United States. Application of Buy America laws is particularly pressing as our nation struggles to emerge from a recession that has devastated the U.S. manufacturing sector.

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