Military Will Now Buy 100% American Flags

Photo by Gabrielle Lazaro/Daily Sun staff

Rep. Mike Thompson announced that the U.S. Department of Defense has issued a rule to implement Thompson’s legislative provision requiring every American flag purchased by the Department of Defense to be 100 percent manufactured in the United States.

The law requires that these flags come from articles, materials or supplies that are 100 percent grown, produced or manufactured in the United States.

Thompson’s provision passed last Congress as part of H.R. 3547, the Fiscal Year 2014 omnibus appropriations bill, and was signed into law by the president in January 2014.

“This Pentagon rule implements my legislation to make sure every American flag DOD buys is made in America, by American workers with American products,” said Thompson, D-St. Helena. “As a veteran myself, I am proud that because of this legislation, our brave men and women in uniform will never again have to serve under a non-American made U.S. flag.”

Thompson’s provision, which the Defense Department rule codifies, applied the Berry Amendment to the American flag, the congressman said in a news release.

The Berry Amendment, originally passed in 1941, prohibits DOD funds from being used to acquire food, clothing, military uniforms, fabrics, stainless steel, and hand or measuring tools that are not grown or produced in the United States, except in rare exceptions. Thompson’s provision applied the same rules for the DOD’s acquisition of American flags, which previously were not listed as a covered item.

Precedent already exists for such a provision. Currently, the Department of Veterans Affairs is required to purchase U.S.-made American flags for service members’ funerals.

SOURCE:  Napa Valley Register[p][/p]

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