How far will this state-level public procurement legislation advance in the Evergreen State’s legislature?
There are plenty of Buy America laws across the United States, which direct state tax dollars spent on public works projects to purchase American-made products and materials. In the last decade, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Virginia and Oregon have all passed Buy America laws for their state funding.
In 2025, the state of Washington is considering joining the Made In America movement.
Last week, the Washington legislature’s House Capital Budget Committee held a hearing for House Bill (HB) 1256, introduced by Rep. Natasha Hill (D-Spokane). It would mandate that public works projects receiving more than $500,000 of state capital funds require that the iron, steel, aluminum, and manufactured products used or supplied in the performance of the contract be manufactured in the United States. It would also establish a waiver process in case those materials or products can’t be found here; a feature typical of Buy America legislation.
Now, there are lots of reasons such a bill is a good idea. Buy America rewards American producers who invest in operating in America. That, in turn, supports American jobs and strengthens domestic supply chains for all the materials and products these bills cover. They’re also consistently popular across the political spectrum.
“By requiring our state tax dollars to be invested in American manufacturing, we would be supporting high-quality jobs here in the U.S. and helping to buck the decades-long trend of industry offshoring,” said Christoph Mair of the Washington State Labor Council, who testified in favor of the bill.
But what’s more, Washington could bring its agencies into compliance with such a rule relatively easily, because it already applies Buy America rules to infrastructure projects it oversees that use federal funding. Why? Because federal dollars come with Buy America rules attached.
Brian Lombardozzi, the Alliance for American Manufacturing’s vice president for state governmental affairs, made this point in his own testimony.
“This is not a new practice for the state of Washington. It’s the application of a tried-and-true practice it has applied to projects funded by the federal government for over 40 years and has been working to expand this practice across other agencies spending federal dollars,” he said. “This bill simply asks the state of Washington to follow those same procurement practices when the state uses its own tax dollars to fully fund projects.”
So there you have it: A straightforward, popular bill to codify preferences for domestic industry in the Evergreen State’s public procurement rules. Now that it’s had a budget committee hearing, how far will it move in the legislature? We’ll be watching as it develops.