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2. Rebuild America, Bring Back Jobs Act: Legislative Outline

Model Legislative Outline, not final bill text. It needs drafting by legislative counsel. Version 2.1, revised November 4, 2026.

This Act may be cited as the “Rebuild America, Bring Back Jobs Act”.

Purpose

To bring manufacturing home, speed up permits for infrastructure, cut costly regulation, and fix existing roads and bridges first.

Principal Requirements

Sec. 4. Full expensing for factory structures

• Permanent 100% first-year deduction for qualified production property (new domestic factory structures), extending the temporary provision in Public Law 119-21.
• Amends 26 U.S.C. 168.

Sec. 5. Two-year permit deadline

• The lead agency must certify an application complete, or list what is missing, within 30 days; the 2-year clock starts on certification.
• Environmental review must finish within 2 years of certification, or it is deemed complete.
• Deemed completion does not waive any safety permit or finding (pipeline, dam, nuclear, aviation, and similar).
• Amends the National Environmental Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).

Sec. 6. One-in, three-out

• An agency may not issue a new major rule unless it repeals three existing rules whose combined annual cost is equal or greater.
• Exempt: rules required by court order, and rules needed to address an imminent threat to health or safety (with the threat stated in the rule).
• Conforming amendments to 5 U.S.C. 553 and 804.

Sec. 7. Supply chains home

• Federal procurement of critical goods (medicine and its ingredients, semiconductors, steel, and defense materials) must be domestic, phased in over 5 years.
• Waiver when a good is not available domestically in enough quantity or quality, or domestic cost is more than 25% higher; each waiver is published and lasts at most 1 year, renewable.

Sec. 8. Repair first

• States must certify that their federal highway and bridge funds meet repair and maintenance needs before funding new expansion.
• Conforming amendments to title 23, United States Code.

Definitions and Eligibility

• “Major rule”: as in 5 U.S.C. 804(2), including a rule with an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more.
• “Domestic”: final assembly in the United States, with at least 65% of the cost of components produced in the United States.
• “Infrastructure project”: roads, bridges, ports, waterways, airports, rail, pipelines, and electric transmission and generation.

Existing Law Affected

• Internal Revenue Code sec. 168
• National Environmental Policy Act
• Administrative Procedure Act and Congressional Review Act (5 U.S.C. 553, 801–808)
• Buy American Act (41 U.S.C. 8301 et seq.); title 23, U.S. Code

Implementation Timeline

• Expensing: property placed in service after enactment.
• Permit deadline and one-in, three-out: 180 days after enactment.
• Supply chains: phased in over 5 years.

Responsible Agencies

Treasury and IRS; Council on Environmental Quality and lead permitting agencies; Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; General Services Administration and Department of Defense; Department of Transportation.

Enforcement and Appeals

Applicants may sue in federal court to enforce the permit deadline. Petitions challenging a completed review must be filed in a federal court of appeals within 150 days. GAO reports each year on compliance.

Fiscal Implications

Expensing reduces federal revenue in early years. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the temporary factory-structures provision in Public Law 119-21 at about $141 billion over fiscal years 2025–2034; making it permanent would cost more. See the fiscal appendix.

See the fiscal appendix for cited estimates.

Legislative Instrument Required

Bill (H.R.) with a Senate companion bill (S.). The tax section is a revenue measure and must start in the House.

Severability: if any provision, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the rest of the measure and its other applications are not affected.

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