FTA Oversight Procedures - Federal Transit Administration - U.S. ...

waiver is requested are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably
available quantities and of a satisfactory quality in certain circumstances, or that the
inclusion of a domestic item or domestic material will increase the cost of the contract
between the grantee and its supplier of that item or material by more than 25 percent. 4
All waivers must be approved by the FTA Administrator or his designee.
In addition to the requirements outlined above, a recipient purchasing revenue service
rolling stock must conduct or cause to be conducted a pre-award and post-delivery audit
as prescribed in 49 CFR Part 663.
a) “Final Assembly is the creation of the end product from different elements
brought together for that purpose through the application of manufacturing
processes.” 5
b) The minimum requirements for final assembly differ for bus and rail vehicles. 6
• Most heavy duty transit bus manufacturers use a two-stage manufacturing
process in which buses are partially built abroad and then finalized in the U.S.
• For these 2-stage manufacturing processes, FTA no longer requires that bus
manufacturers install certain bus components and subcomponents in the U.S.,
and allow installations abroad which have been shown to be helpful to
maintaining structural integrity of bus frames shipped to the U.S.
• For that reason, FTA excludes doors, windows, axles and/or wheels, brakes
and subcomponents from Buy America provisions.
c) With regard to rail vehicles, however, domestic final assembly operations, at a
minimum, must include the installation and interconnection of propulsion control
and cooling equipment, brake equipment, power sources for auxiliaries and
controls, HVAC, communications equipment, bogie/truck assemblies (including
axles, frames, motors, suspension, and wheels), and factory functional tests on the
vehicles in order to qualify for Buy America.
This Oversight Procedure, document OP26A, is one of a suite of documents covering all
aspects of the various duties and responsibilities of the PMOC, in support of Capital
procurements. See FTA Oversight Procedures, listed below, for relevant information.
• OP 01 Administrative Conditions and Requirements
• OP 12 Recurring Oversight and Related Reports (Periodic, Trip, Quarterly, Final)
• OP 20 Project Management Plan Review
2.2 FTA’s Buy America Requirements
4 49 CFR 661.7.
5 49 CFR 661.11(r).
6 Appendix D to 49 CFR 661.11.
OP26A Buy America Review
Revision 0, June 2008
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