Further Information on American Iron and Steel (AIS)
Most agencies, contractor, or other group purchasing Joints Couplings products, require all products meet AIS standards. Completely understanding AIS requirements, process, and implementation in the real world is nebulas but will try explaining.

Usually a public agency or private company wants a compliance letter that a product meets requirements. A letter is requested by an exsisting customer or potentially new customer.

Agencies write a AIS waiver when product is made outside the USA from iron and steel entirly or has iron and steel components made outside the USA with iron and steel entirly or with compoenents.   
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Most agencies, contractor, or other group purchasing Joints Couplings products, want to know all products meet AIS standards. The standard requirement for iron and steel includes complete manufacturing in USA: minerals sourcing, steel making, casting, forming/ hot rolling, treatment, and descaling.  When a product not meeting this high manufacturing standard is required AIS is implemented.  AIS applies to products that touch water: sewer, stormwater, drainage, and fresh water.

The EPA heavily publicized AIS and continues to have excellent publicity through webinars, website, direct work with manufacturers, and displays at conventions.

Basic mechanics from Joints Coupling Observation.  These are not the complete guidelines but observation by Michael Bea, an employee at Joints Couplings on what actually happens.  Complete outline of process shown on EPA AIS website.

Local agencies building storm water or sewer collection systems need a product that is made outside of the USA from iron or steel or has non-USA made iron and steel components.  EPA is contacted.  Typically local agency project federally funded.

Local agency employees and EPA employees search for AIS compliant product before any waiver created. EPA finds USA companies meeting EPA guidelines and give those companies information to local agency requesting waiver. If no companies found a waiver is submitted direct on AIS website.  There are multiple avenues of what happens after EPA contact.

When EPA employees find companies making substitution products in the USA these companies are provided in a list to the local government.  The list is given before any waiver made online. What the local government does with this information is technically persmissible but ethically dubious. An opportunistic engineer might question the validity of a tested USA made product meeting the guidelines.  

When a waiver requesting a foreign made product is submitted onto AIS website no USA made product was identified.

After waiver submitted a publicly comment period for 45 starts on EPA AIS website.

A manufacturer cannot provide an alternative product directly on the EPA website but must contact the EPA representative, local agency and person identified on waiver.  Contact on email and phone is possible.  Best outcome for providing the compliant material might be by directly visiting the agency?  EPA has told me, “go to the agency and show your product.”

If local agency requests an AIS waiver for a product that performs the same and will be utilized in the same conditions as a Joints Couplings’ product the local government can use the Joints Couplings’ product instead of product requiring an AIS waiver. Typical substitution happens when agency request product that will perform the same function as a Joints Couplings product. Substitution can happen even though Joints Couplings products are not made entirely from iron and steel.  

Real Life Examples:

A City in South Carolina requests an AIS waiver for metal lateral connections in a drainage storm system. Joints Coupling manufactures the Tap-N-Tee Saddle a product that links storm water pipe laterals into the sides of mainline pipe.  I found the waiver when reading AIS on EPA website, was super excited but did not think anything would actually happen. The City or consultant can replace the metal lateral with Tap-N-Tee Saddle when developing the engineering drawings. The city will than purchase Tap-N-Tee Saddles for lateral connections in stormwater lines during the physical construction process. Unfortunately, I never made the trip to South Carolina.

Received a call from a large city in Minnesota for large diameter couplings. Provide the complete testing parameters and showed how couplings made in the USA. Never got a call back.

Other:

Funding for projects is from loans provided by the federal government, grant, state government, or other mixed public funding sources.

Joints Couplings products are not made entirely of steal or iron but components made from these materials meet AIS standards.  Metal bands, tightening devices, worm gear, t-bolt, nut and bolt, nut and bolt design 2, shear bands, tightening bands, and core drill, are made in the USA.

A project can be design to utilize Tap-N-Tee Saddles or Calder Repair Couplings when non-compliant AIS product waiver requested to perform the same process under equal conditions.

AIS is a policy that was first produced under the Obama administration.  All presidential administrations after Obama, Trump and Biden, have continued the policy. Both Democrat and Republic parties both heavily publicizes on made in America through speeches.