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Bill would increase ‘Buy American’ requirements
YOUNGSTOWN
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is spearheading a new “Buy America” plan to require the federal government to buy apparel that is 100 percent American-made.
There are exemptions for apparel types not made in the United States, he said Wednesday during a conference call.
Current Buy America statutes require only 51 percent of apparel products bought by the federal government to be made in this country, except for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. Their apparel already is required to be 100 percent American-made.
Brown’s proposal comes after last week’s news that the uniforms being worn by U.S. athletes during the opening ceremony of the upcoming Summer Olympics in London were made in China.
The federal government spends about $3 billion a year on apparel, according to Brown’s office.
Fashion designer Nanette Lepore, a Youngstown native, said, “I love this initiative.”
Lepore, an outspoken critic of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s decision to outfit the team in Ralph Lauren uniforms made in China, said the “Buy America” policy “is vital and will create more jobs in the American factories that need it now.”
Lepore, who joined Brown on the call, added that “it has always been a smart and ethical business practice for my company.”
When asked by The Vindicator, Lepore said the materials for her clothing line largely come from overseas, primarily from Italy and other European nations, but she uses only American manufacturing facilities to make her clothing line. She added that she can’t get the specific materials in America in the small quantities she needs.
There are enough textile facilities in the United States for many products, but not for what Lepore needs, said Brown, a Democrat from Avon.
Brown’s bill, the Wear American Act of 2012, would revise an existing law requiring that 51 percent of federal-agency purchases of textiles and apparel be made in America, and require textiles and apparels acquired for use by federal agencies be manufactured in this country, unless there either isn’t enough or any produced here.
Meanwhile, at the invitation of Brown, Doug Polk, V&M Star’s vice president of industry affairs, spoke Wednesday before the Senate Democratic Steering Committee about American-made products. V&M, a French-based company, is spending $650 million on an expansion project in Youngstown.
“Strong trade-law enforcement has been key to V&M Star’s success in Ohio,” Polk said. “Countries like China have shown that they will stop at nothing to lure away American manufacturing jobs. Without an aggressive approach to addressing unfair subsidies and trade practices carried out by the Chinese government, hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, like those at V&M Star [in Youngstown], could be jeopardized.”
V&M produces pipe for the oil-and-gas industry.
“The renaissance of U.S. manufacturing in support of the rapidly developed shale frontiers and offshore development will bring a tremendous surge of new high-tech job opportunities in” Ohio, he said.