American Combat Boot Alliance welcomes introduction of BOOTS Act

The Berry Amendment requires the department of defense to purchase certain items, primarily clothing and food, from domestic sources.

“Over the past several years, there has been a concerning influx of poorly made, non-Berry Amendment-compliant, foreign-sourced footwear procured by United States Army and United States Air Force service members,” ACBA, a coalition comprising US manufacturers committed to the readiness and combat effectiveness of warfighters, said in a letter to Nikki Budzinski from the House of Representatives and Tammy Duckworth from the Senate.

“The growing reliance on foreign products has led to the further erosion within the domestic footwear industrial base that supports the warfighter, resulting in over 750,000 pair of non-US manufactured combat boots being sold to Army and Air Force personnel each year,” the letter noted.

These inferior products are subject to import tariffs, leaving vendors no choice but to pass the additional costs onto service members. These increased costs may exceed retail prices of domestically manufactured combat footwear, the ACBA letter said.

Military service members receive annual Congressionally-appropriated uniform allowances for non-issued uniform items. The BOOTs Act will ensure that they can effectively use their taxpayer-funded uniform allowance to purchase American-made combat footwear, the letter said.

This legislation also helps secure the challenged combat footwear supply chain industrial base, diversify the selection of domestic combat boots and ensure that US companies can meet surge demands in times of crisis, it added.

ACBA member entities include the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the National Council of Textile Organisations, the US Footwear Manufacturers Association and several other private manufacturers.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)