Republican members of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee want to know if a Pennsylvania railcar contract with a Chinese state-owned company complies with federal Buy America requirements.
Specifically, T&I Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) and U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), ranking member of the committee’s Highways and Transit Subcommittee, joined with a fellow committee member to call for a review of a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) railcar contract with the state-owned China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. MA (CRRC MA) to determine if it complies with Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Buy America requirements.
In a Sept. 21 letter sent to U.S. Transportation Department Inspector General Eric Soskin, the members wrote that the CRRC MA is fully building passenger railcars in China and plans to ship them to SEPTA, a deal that could violate FTA’s Buy America requirements for the procurement of rolling stock — railcars or buses.
The requirements dictate that the cost of the components and subcomponents for rolling stock produced in the United States must total more than 60 percent for fiscal year (FY) 2016 and FY 2017; more than 65 percent for FY 2018 and FY 2019; and more than 70 percent for FY 2020 and beyond, according to their letter, which notes that final assembly for rolling stock must occur in the United States.
At the same time, CRRC MA is a subsidiary of CRRC Corp. Ltd., an entity previously designated by the U.S. Department of Defense as a company tied to the Chinese military. CRRC also has been scrutinized for potentially using child labor, according to the members’ letter.
Current federal law bans U.S. taxpayer dollars from being used to purchase rolling stock from such foreign state-owned or controlled companies, wrote Rep. Graves, Rep. Davis, and their colleague.
“It is important to the competitiveness and security of American industries that we ensure that companies that do business in our country comply with all U.S. laws and that there’s a level playing field,” Rep. Graves said. “We are simply asking the Inspector General to determine whether CRRC is in compliance with Buy America requirements.”
Rep. Davis also pointed out in the statement that it’s critically important for the United States to prioritize manufacturing in America, especially in the transportation sector.
“That’s why my colleagues and I sent a letter to the Department of Transportation to ensure that our Buy America requirements are being followed and that federal funds are not being used to procure goods from state-owned enterprises run by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.
The lawmakers requested that Soskin initiate a Transportation Department review and provide them with the results by Oct. 5.