President Biden used much of his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to tout his administration’s progress in strengthening American manufacturing, citing the 800,000 factory jobs and $300 billion worth of investments that have been created over the past two years.
Biden also used the speech to officially announce new Buy America standards for infrastructure projects, which will require that “all construction materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in America,” including products like lumber, glass, drywall, and fiber optic cables. While such standards have been on the books since 1933, “past administrations have found ways to get around it,” Biden noted.
