Gym Equipment in a Federally Funded Rec Center Can Fall Outside Build America Buy America

Build America Buy America is the federal domestic-content regime that often reaches an equipment dealer first as a clause buried in a municipal purchase order. It attaches to federal financial assistance obligated for infrastructure projects, and it travels downhill through subawards, contracts and purchase orders until it reaches a quote. For a commercial fitness dealer the practical question is narrower than the statute sounds, and it often turns on one distinction: whether a unit is permanently affixed to the building or simply sits on its floor.

That distinction is written into the award terms agencies use, and it is where a grant-funded recreation center project separates into two different quoting problems. Getting the split wrong can mean a disqualified line item, or weeks spent chasing domestic-content paperwork that was never required.

What Build America Buy America requires on a funded project

The Build America, Buy America Act was enacted on November 15, 2021 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Department of Energy’s Build America Buy America program page states that the requirement applies to federal financial assistance obligated for infrastructure projects after May 14, 2022, and that it reaches new and renewal awards plus funding modifications made on or after that date to existing awards covering public infrastructure projects. OMB’s primary implementing guidance sits at 2 CFR part 184.

The OMB implementation memorandum M-24-02, dated October 25, 2023, sets out the award term agencies pass along. It classifies covered articles as “(i) Iron or steel products; (ii) Manufactured products; (iii) Construction materials; or (iv) Section 70917(c) materials,” the last covering cement, aggregates and aggregate binding agents. The memorandum also states that where it conflicts with part 184, part 184 controls.

For a manufactured product, the component test is the one dealers get asked about. The domestic content standard is met where the cost of components “mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States” is “greater than 55 percent of the total cost of all components of the manufactured product,” unless another standard set by law or regulation applies. That test does not stand alone: the product must also have been manufactured in the United States.

Where the requirement reaches a dealer who holds no grant

A for-profit dealer is generally not a covered prime recipient at all, and that leads to a common misreading. DOE lists covered prime recipients as states, local governments, Indian Tribes, territories, institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations. A dealer is still reached, because the requirement flows down to all subawards, contracts, subcontracts and purchase orders for work on the project.

A dealer’s Build America Buy America duty, in other words, generally arrives by contract rather than by direct statutory obligation. What binds the quote is the award term written into the purchase order. DOE also notes that a for-profit entity can become subject to the requirement by voluntarily committing to it in an application, which is worth checking before a manufacturer partner signs anything on a dealer’s behalf.

That makes the purchase order the document to read first, not the specification. The same discipline applies on any public bid, where qualifying the bid and documenting equivalent products before pricing decides whether a quote survives review.

The exclusion that decides the scope of an equipment order

The award term agencies issue carries two exclusions that bear directly on a fitness equipment quote. DOE’s current Buy America Preference provision for financial assistance awards, issued September 2, 2025 and superseding its 2025-01 predecessor, states that the requirement “does not apply to tools, equipment, and supplies, such as temporary scaffolding, brought to the construction site and removed at or before the completion of the infrastructure project.”

The second exclusion is the one to put in front of a buyer, and it sits in OMB’s own guidance rather than any single agency’s, so it is not DOE-specific. M-24-02 states, in both its applicability section and its sample award term, that no Buy America preference applies to “equipment and furnishings, such as movable chairs, desks, and portable computer equipment” that are used at or within the finished infrastructure project but “are not an integral part of the structure or permanently affixed to the infrastructure project.” DOE’s current provision carries the same exclusion, worded as items “not an integral part of or permanently affixed to the infrastructure.”

Read against a typical equipment package, that language generally puts free-standing cardio units, movable benches, loose dumbbells and rolling storage outside the preference, even on a project that is otherwise fully covered. It does not settle every line item, and the determination belongs to the recipient and the awarding agency rather than to the dealer. It does mean a dealer should not assume a whole equipment package is covered because the construction contract is.

M-24-02 is also explicit that “infrastructure” is read broadly and includes “buildings and real property,” with the listed examples treated as illustrative. The memorandum adds that projects with public features carry more indicia of infrastructure than private ones.

Build America Buy America and equipment that is bolted down

The hard cases are the affixed ones. Wall-mounted rigs, racks anchored into a slab, lifting platforms set into the floor, poured or permanently bonded flooring, fixed mirrors and mezzanine structures all sit closer to the structure than a treadmill on casters does. Some of those items may also fall under the construction materials standard rather than the manufactured products standard, which carries a different test.

Anchoring is not a statutory bright line. The award term asks whether an item is an integral part of the structure or permanently affixed to the project, and a four-bolt wedge anchor into concrete reads differently from a rack that is floor-mounted only to satisfy a manufacturer’s tip-over instruction. Because the scope question drives the compliance question, settling what belongs in a rack anchoring installation specification early is worth more than arguing about it after the award.

Where a line item is genuinely borderline, ask the recipient to seek the awarding agency’s view in writing and price the item both ways while that answer is outstanding. Dealers should treat classification as the recipient’s and the agency’s call, and consult their own counsel before certifying anything.

Six checks before quoting a grant-funded project

1. Name the funding source and get the award term in writing. Ask which federal program is funding the project and request the actual Buy America award term from the purchase order or subaward, not a summary of it.
2. Split the quote into affixed and movable line items. Price anchored rigs, platforms, bonded flooring and fixed mirrors on separate lines from free-standing units, so a covered determination cannot sweep in the whole package.
3. For affixed items, request a written component statement. Ask the manufacturer to address the 55 percent cost-of-components test and the place of final manufacture, as separate questions.
4. Check whether a construction materials standard applies. Flooring, mirrors, glass and structural steel may be assessed under a different standard than a manufactured machine.
5. Ask whether a waiver has been requested or granted. Confirm the status in writing rather than pricing against an assumed waiver.
6. Keep the file for the award’s retention period. Hold the award term, the component statements, waiver correspondence and the affixed-versus-movable split with the project record.

A worked example of the cost-of-components test

The figures below are illustrative assumptions chosen to show the arithmetic, not industry data, and no dealer should treat them as typical. Assume a plate-loaded rack with a total component cost of $2,400 and final assembly in a United States plant.

Domestic components total $1,550 of the assumed $2,400, which is 64.6 percent. On these assumptions the product clears the “greater than 55 percent” threshold, provided it was also manufactured in the United States. Now change one input: move the steel tubing to an imported source and domestic components fall to $570, or 23.8 percent, and the same rack fails the test.

That sensitivity is why a component statement has to be specific. A letter confirming domestic assembly says nothing about the component percentage, and a mid-year sourcing change the dealer never sees can undo a quote built on the first column.

Records to keep and the warning signs

Four warning signs are worth acting on. A purchase order that carries a Buy America clause but no scope split invites a dispute over movable units. A buyer who cannot name the funding program may not be able to produce the award term either. A supplier willing to certify a label claim but unwilling to address the component test has answered a different question, and the gap between those two standards is real: the FTC’s own origin rules set three conditions a Made in USA label has to meet, and clearing them is not the same as clearing a 55 percent component threshold.

The fourth is a bid priced against a waiver nobody has secured. M-24-02 describes three waiver bases: public interest, nonavailability where an item is not produced domestically “in sufficient and reasonably available quantities or of a satisfactory quality,” and unreasonable cost where domestic content would raise total project cost “by more than 25 percent.” Waivers are reviewed by the Made in America Office and posted for public comment for at least 15 days, and DOE notes that requests must come from the prime recipient in writing and may take up to 90 calendar days to process.

One more distinction is worth keeping straight internally, because the two regimes are often conflated in the same conversation. This preference governs federal financial assistance to states, localities and other recipients. Selling directly to a federal agency runs through a separate set of origin rules, which is why the country-of-origin clause in a GSA schedule contract turns on different language and a different test.

Common questions from dealers

Does Build America Buy America apply to a privately funded gym build?

The preference attaches to federal financial assistance obligated for infrastructure projects, so a build with no federal assistance in it generally sits outside the regime. M-24-02 gives the clearest negative example at the far end of the scale, stating that purchasing or improving a private home for personal use “would not constitute a public infrastructure project for purposes of BABA.” A commercially funded club project is a different question from a home, and anyone unsure whether a funding stream carries federal assistance should ask the funder in writing.

Can a dealer apply for a waiver directly?

DOE states that waiver requests “must be submitted by the prime recipient in writing to DOE,” which means a dealer generally works through the recipient rather than filing on its own. Requests are reviewed by the agency and OMB and are subject to a public comment period of at least 15 calendar days. A dealer’s useful contribution is the market evidence behind a nonavailability argument, assembled early enough to matter.

Who decides whether a rack counts as permanently affixed?

The award term supplies the standard, asking whether the item is an integral part of the structure or permanently affixed to the project, but the determination on a given project rests with the recipient and the awarding agency. A dealer’s job is to describe the installation accurately, flag the borderline items in writing and keep the correspondence. Guessing in the buyer’s favor is the expensive option.

What to do before the next public bid

Build the affixed-versus-movable split into the quote template now, while no live bid is on the clock. Add two standing questions to the buyer qualification script: which federal program is funding this, and can you send the award term. Then ask the manufacturers carrying the most anchored product on the line card for a written component statement.

Dealers should treat this as scope and documentation work rather than a legal determination, and take any classification question that affects a bid to their own counsel and to the awarding agency. Build America Buy America has applied to covered federal financial assistance since May 14, 2022, but agency-level provisions keep moving: DOE replaced its own provision in September 2025. Check the award term in hand against the current one each time, because the cost of misreading it tends to fall on whoever priced the quote.