President Joe Biden has vetoed largely Republican-backed legislation that he said would have undermined his Buy America policies that apply to electric vehicle charging stations.
The stakes have been raised on the measure, which Biden vetoed on Jan. 24, because of the $7.5 billion five-year infusion electric vehicle chargers received in the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act of 2021.
Both supporters and opponents of the now-vetted bill say its views would protect US electric vehicle manufacturers from foreign competition, particularly from Chinese companies.
Biden said in his veto message that if enacted, the measure would cancel existing national manufacturing standards for loaders funded by the Federal Highway Administration and also hurt US manufacturing and jobs.
The House had approved the bill on January 11 by a vote of 209 to 198, basically along party lines.
The Senate had approved the measure last November, 50-48, with 46 Republicans and four Democrats and independents voting for it.
Those margins are well short of the two-thirds majority needed in both houses of Congress to override Biden’s veto.
Biden also said the proposed measure would weaken Buy America requirements by reverting to the FHWA’s blanket waiver for manufactured goods. He claimed he would allow federal funds, including $7.5 billion from the IIJA, to pay for chargers made in other countries, including China.
If the veto is upheld, the Buy America status quo would continue. It builds on a 2023 policy that requires FHWA-funded EV chargers to be made in the US, including that the chargers’ iron and steel casings use domestic iron and steel.
The policy includes a temporary exemption for electric vehicle chargers from Buy America requirements that is to be phased out on July 1, putting the Buy America requirements into effect. For chargers manufactured after that date, at least 55% of the cost of all their components must be made in the US
The advocates of the bill
For their part, supporters of the vetoed bill say it was necessary to block Chinese-made electric vehicle chargers from being used in FHWA-funded projects.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who sponsored the now-vetoed measure, said in a statement last year that Biden’s policy “hurts American businesses and allows foreign adversaries, such as China, control our energy infrastructure”.
He added: “We should never use US dollars to subsidize products made in China.”
