U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy has reintroduced legislation designed to prioritize the federal government’s purchase of American-made goods.
According to a statement issued by the Connecticut Democrat”™s office, the 21st Century Buy American Act would achieve its goals through a three-pronged approach: closing loopholes that enable federal agencies to bypass existing “Buy American” procurement requirements; provide resources for U.S. manufacturers of items in short supply in order to compete with foreign manufacturers for federal contracts; and increase the domestic content percentage requirement from 50% to 60% for products to be labeled as American-made.
Murphy, who unsuccessfully introduced the legislation on two earlier occasions, added the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute concluded the 21st Century Buy American Act would create up to 100,000 jobs.
“There have been some hard-fought small wins in the Buy American movement lately, including a BuyAmerican.gov website, but we still have a ways to go,” Murphy stated. “I”™m reintroducing the 21st Century Buy American Act to help strengthen our manufacturing sector and bring local jobs back to Connecticut. I have seen manufacturing companies across our state step up in a big way during the COVID-19 pandemic to produce critical PPE (personal protective equipment) and ventilators, and taxpayers want their dollars supporting these companies.”
The senator added that anyone who claimed to be “a champion of U.S. manufacturing should support this legislation.”
Its a shame that our legislators left loopholes in the law that was supposed to protect US manufactures. It would be even better if the content requirement was at least 75% to consider a product made in the USA for government contracts. Perhaps in the future, it can be 100%. The Covid pandemic has proved the necessity of US manufacturing for national security as well. We need to do all we can to protect our nation and be ready for any kind of crises.