Dive Brief:

• The Federal Highway Administration has proposed requiring that equipment bought with money from its Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Improvements (CMAQ) has to be made in the U.S.
• The Associated Equipment Dealers trade group tells the FHWA in a letter that it's a bad idea for several reasons.
• A restriction would favor some dealers over others because of what they sell and would skew the equipment market, potentially raising prices, the argument goes.

Dive Insight:

Heavy equipment for construction, agriculture, mining and other industries obviously is an international market, which you can see on most any job site where Cats and Kubotas are both working, and the association says trying to tie funding to buying only American-made gear is unrealistic. AED also told FHWA that it thinks the whole proposal is illegal and suggested FHWA lay out in print why it thinks it has the authority in the first place.