NCTO approves passage of Defense Authorization Bill
27 Dec '05
3 min read
National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) applauds recent passage of the FY2006 Department of Defense Authorization bill by both the House and Senate and the inclusion of language to strengthen the “Buy American” rules for the Department of Defense (DoD). NCTO is extremely grateful to U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes for spearheading this effort.
“As a result of Rep. Hayes efforts, the Department of Defense is now required to notify both the Congress and U.S. industry when it decides to buy textile and apparel goods from foreign sources."
"This notification process will help ensure that our industry has a fair shake in competing for this business and hope will cause DoD to think twice before issuing such waivers in the future,” said Cass Johnson, President of NCTO."
"Johnson further noted that “the new language also expands the domestic sourcing requirement so that all components of textile and apparel goods used by our military must now be sourced domestically as well.”
In 1941, a provision was adopted in Title X that is commonly referred to as the Berry Amendment. This provision requires the Department of Defense to give preference to domestically produced and manufactured products, notably clothing, food, fabrics and specialty metals.
In 2005, the DoD will purchase more than 8,000 textile and apparel items ranging from uniforms, footwear, and t-shirts to flags and tents. DoD projects its purchases of textiles and apparel to total more than $2.5 billion.
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