diff --git a/opal/mca/btl/usnic/Makefile.am b/opal/mca/btl/usnic/Makefile.am
index cb25446f73d..b7695820ac5 100644
--- a/opal/mca/btl/usnic/Makefile.am
+++ b/opal/mca/btl/usnic/Makefile.am
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2010-2019 Cisco Systems, Inc.  All rights reserved
 # Copyright (c) 2015      Intel, Inc. All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2016-2017 IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2017      Los Alamos National Security, LLC.  All rights
+#                         reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2019      Research Organization for Information Science
+#                         and Technology (RIST).  All rights reserved.
 # $COPYRIGHT$
 #
 # Additional copyrights may follow
@@ -103,7 +107,7 @@ libmca_btl_usnic_la_LDFLAGS = \
 libmca_btl_usnic_la_LIBADD = $(opal_ofi_LIBS)
 
 if OPAL_BTL_USNIC_BUILD_UNIT_TESTS
-usnic_btl_run_tests_CPPFLAGS = \
+usnic_btl_run_tests_CPPFLAGS = $(AM_CPPFLAGS) \
     -DBTL_USNIC_RUN_TESTS_SYMBOL=\"opal_btl_usnic_run_tests\"
 usnic_btl_run_tests_SOURCES = test/usnic_btl_run_tests.c
 usnic_btl_run_tests_LDADD = -ldl