President Obama asked to clarify footwear procurement

President Obama has been urged to force the US Department of Defense to follow the ‘Berry Amendment’.

The ‘American Shoes for American Servicemembers Act’ has been introduced into the US Congress in an attempt to clarify that the ‘Berry Amendment’ law has always applied to footwear and will continue to do so. Developed from the 1941 ‘Department of Defense Appropriations Act’, the Berry Amendment requires the US Department of Defense to buy certain products from American companies, including footwear, clothing, fabrics, food, stainless steel and a variety of tools. In recent years, the Department of Defense has issued cash allowances to service personnel to purchase their own training shoes. The Department of Defense has claimed that items bought with a soldier’s cash allowance do not constitute procurement and, therefore, are not subject to Berry Amendment standards.

“For decades, the Defense Department procured American-made athletic footwear for our military’s physical training uniforms, just like they procured American-made shoes for dress and combat uniforms,” said Congressman Mike Michaud. “But they recently stopped providing American-made shoes for our troops to train in, and that’s just not right. We need to be doing everything we can to promote job creation in our country, especially during these difficult times. I’ve introduced this bill to clarify what everyone already knows – that the Berry Amendment applies to athletic footwear and that the Department of Defense must comply with the law.”

Congressman Michaud has written to President Obama, urging him to take executive action on the issue and to use his authority to force the Department of Defense to adhere to the Berry Amendment.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 2 of the November 2011 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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