FAR and DFARS › FAR Part 25: Foreign Acquisition › Subpart 25.6
FAR 25.601 Definitions.
The codified text (eCFR, as of 2026-10-02). Under the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul ↗, agencies follow class deviations with new text for many parts while the formal rules go through the Federal Register: check the solicitation and your contract's clauses, which rule.
In plain English
This section defines key terms used in the Buy American and Recovery Act rules for construction materials. It explains what counts as domestic versus foreign construction material, what a public building or public work is, and which countries are Recovery Act designated countries. Contractors bidding on federal construction need these definitions to know whether their materials qualify as domestic.
Applies to: Contractors supplying construction materials on federal construction projects
Key terms: Domestic construction material · Foreign construction material · Manufactured construction material · Public building or public work · Recovery Act designated country
Written by AI from this section's text. A guide, not legal advice: the text below rules.
The text
As used in this subpart—
Domestic construction material means the following:
(1) An unmanufactured construction material mined or produced in the United States. (The Buy American statute applies.)
(2) A manufactured construction material that is manufactured in the United States and, if the construction material consists wholly or predominantly of iron or steel, the iron or steel was produced in the United States. (Section 1605 of the Recovery Act applies.)
Foreign construction material means a construction material other than a domestic construction material.
Manufactured construction material means any construction material that is not unmanufactured construction material.
Public building or public work means a building or work, the construction, prosecution, completion, or repair of which is carried on directly or indirectly by authority of, or with funds of, a Federal agency to serve the interest of the general public regardless of whether title thereof is in a Federal agency (see 22.401). These buildings and works may include, without limitation, bridges, dams, plants, highways, parkways, streets, subways, tunnels, sewers, mains, power lines, pumping stations, heavy generators, railways, airports, terminals, docks, piers, wharves, ways, lighthouses, buoys, jetties, breakwaters, levees, and canals, and the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of such buildings and works.
Recovery Act designated country means a World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement country, a Free Trade Agreement country, or a least developed country.
← 25.600 Scope of subpart. · 25.602 Policy. →
Rule changes for FAR Part 25
- Federal Acquisition Regulation: Trade Agreements Thresholds ↗ · final rule 2026-03-13 · effective 2026-03-13
- Federal Acquisition Regulation: Inflation Adjustment of Acquisition-Related Thresholds ↗ · final rule 2025-08-27 · effective 2025-10-01
- Federal Acquisition Regulation: List of Domestically Nonavailable Articles ↗ · final rule 2025-05-12 · effective 2025-06-11
- Federal Acquisition Regulation: Improving Consistency Between Procurement and Nonprocurement Procedures on Suspension and Debarment ↗ · final rule 2025-01-03 · effective 2025-01-17
- Federal Acquisition Regulation; Technical Amendments ↗ · final rule 2024-12-16 · effective 2025-01-03
- Federal Acquisition Regulation: Inflation Adjustment of Acquisition-Related Thresholds ↗ · proposed 2024-11-29 · comments due 2025-01-28
- Federal Acquisition Regulation: List of Domestically Nonavailable Articles ↗ · proposed 2024-10-23 · comments due 2024-12-23
- Federal Acquisition Regulation; Technical Amendments ↗ · final rule 2024-07-30 · effective 2024-08-29
Source: eCFR, 48 CFR chapters 1 and 2 (GPO GovInfo bulk data) ↗. Plain words for the terms: glossary.