WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced an amendment to the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015 to strengthen Buy American requirements for the U.S. Department of Energy. Murphy’s amendment would require that any construction, maintenance, repair, or replacement of storage facilities authorized in the Energy Policy Modernization Act is completed with American-made iron, steel, and other domestically manufactured products.  

As the White House pointed out in its Quadrennial Energy Review, our nation’s energy transmission, storage, and distribution infrastructure is in desperate need of updating. Murphy’s amendment would implement the same Buy American requirements included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and will ensure that these critical updates are constructed with American material. 

“When the federal government uses taxpayer dollars to buy products and services from foreign companies, it hurts American companies and American workers. Instead, we should be doing everything we can to ensure that American tax dollars are spent here at home to produce and sustain American jobs. That means giving U.S. companies and workers – not those in China – the first shot at supplying the manufactured goods we need to build Strategic Petroleum Reserve facilities around the country,” said Murphy. “Buying American will grow American industry. I encourage all of my colleagues to demonstrate their support for American jobs and support this amendment.”

Click here to access the full text of the amendment. 

As part of a continued effort to protect and grow American manufacturing jobs, Murphy has introduced two Buy American bills – the 21st Century Buy American Act and the American Jobs Matter Act – and passed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act and the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act that will strengthen existing standards and prioritize the purchase of American-manufactured goods. Murphy has also encouraged the U.S Department of Agriculture to help school districts meet Buy American requirements by prioritizing American farmers in school meal contracts, and he has called on the National Park Service to increase the percentage of American-made merchandise sold in national park retail shops.