U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), in an appeal consistent with the Richland Community Development Group’s “Be Focal Buy Local” movement, is urging the U.S. government to stop purchasing products from foreign contractors.
With his proposed Wear American Act, Brown hopes to change the current law that requires federal agencies to purchase textile products that are 51 percent American-made and instead require all textile products purchased by federal agencies to be made in the United States.
“It means all textile and apparel purchased with U.S. tax dollars go to U.S. businesses and communities, not foreign countries,” said Brown in a conference call on Thursday afternoon. “Fundamentally, if tax dollars are at stake, American business and American workers ought to benefit from it. It’s their dollars.”
Should the Wear American Act legislation pass, government agencies will be required to procure textile and apparel articles in the United States, with exceptions and waivers only when materials are not found within our borders. However, Brown expects the capacity for textile and apparel manufacturing in America to grow to meet the government’s demands.
“The government is a big enough purchaser that once the government starts buying more things, industries will crop up and will grow organically and domestically in this country,” said Brown.
Brown noted that the federal government spends more than $1.5 billion a year on foreign-made products, often made in substandard to intolerable working conditions. To combat this practice, Brown said he is urging the General Services Administration to ensure federal agencies not only disclose the locations of the factories they contract with, but also take their working conditions into account when making purchasing decisions.
“We should be in the business of creating policies that reward work in this country, reward companies who want to create jobs here rather than supporting policies that help take companies and U.S. jobs overseas or take part in questionable labor practices,” said Brown.
For this reason, Brown successfully fought to ensure the uniforms worn by Team USA in Friday’s Opening Ceremonies at the Sochi Winter Olympics were entirely American-made.
“Two years ago the U.S. Summer Olympic team wore Chinese-made red, white and blue,” Brown recalled. “As soon as we found that out I brought it to the attention of Congress. We felt it was an embarrassment that Chinese factories were used to make Team USA’s uniforms. We called an Olympic committee meeting to change this. Now Team USA athletes are wearing American-made apparel in the opening and closing ceremonies at the Sochi Olympics, as they should be.”
Supporting Brown’s Wear American Act is a manufacturer familiar to the Olympics: Tommy Armour, President of American Made Bags, a bag and t-shirt manufacturer from Akron, Ohio. Armour’s company was the official bag supplier of the 2010 Summer Olympics and manufactures all of its products using U.S. materials, currently supplying bags to agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, the National Guard and the U.S. Army.
“I think it’s extremely important to American textiles here in the U.S. for a couple of reasons: it’s going to help our government recognize the factories we have here in the U.S. and our capabilities, and I think that’s very important in the creation of jobs,” said Armour. “I think if we can make the products here and sell them here, with the new jobs we create, our economy is going to grow stronger and stronger.”
A native of Mansfield, Brown said he remembers a time growing up when there were textile manufacturers in Mansfield and more manufacturing in towns similar to Mansfield all over the country.
“Ohio has a long and storied history of making things, and especially designing and manufacturing clothing and apparel, and we should continue to help small businesses like Tommy’s grow and succeed,” said Brown.
Moving forward, Brown said the Wear American Act is already being discussed within the Democratic Party, including President Barack Obama, and he is hopeful for support from the administration and both the Democratic and Republican parties.
“This is an opportunity, as I convince my colleagues that ‘Buy American’ makes sense all across the board, that we do more of that, and that’s what I think will happen for this legislation,” said Brown. “It’s gotten a lot of attention…and I think there’s real opportunity to convince a number of my colleagues in both parties that this makes sense to make a difference in people’s lives.”
“The government is a big enough purchaser that once the government starts buying more things, industries will crop up and will grow organically and domestically in this country,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown.
