Alliance for American Manufacturing has posted some key facts on buy America

Available at: http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/buyamericalawsreportr.pdf

1. The Buy American Act of 1933 established domestic sourcing requirements; these rules have been enforced ever since.

2. The Trade Agreements Act of 1979 ensures that Buy America laws are applied in a manner consistent with our international trade obligations.

3. President Ronald Reagan signed into law expanded Buy America requirements in 1982 in the midst of a recession.

4. Buy America rules have never been successfully challenged at the World Trade Organization.

5. Major industrialized countries like Russia , China , and India do not grant reciprocal access to U.S. materials for government procurement.

6. The EU and Canada have far more restrictive procurement regimes than the U.S.

7. The 25% foreign cost waiver is rarely invoked; it was only needed in 0.2 percent of the federal government’s spending on foreign manufactures for domestic use in 2007.

8. A PERI-UMass at Amherst study estimates that 33% more manufacturing jobs will be created with exclusively domestic sourcing of manufactured materials.
(http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/infrastructure-investment/)

9. U.S. manufacturing shed 800,000 jobs last year, nearly one-third of all U.S. job losses. Manufacturing lost 207,000 jobs last month alone. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

10. A recent poll shows that 84% of the American public support Buy America requirements for stimulus spending. http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/newscenter/pressreleases/2009/02/06/americans-overwhelmingly-support-%E2%80%98buy-american%E2%80%99/