Buying American: Protecting U.S. Manufacturing Through the Berry and Kissell Amendments

Summary

The Berry and Kissell Amendments are two separate but closely related laws requiring that certain goods purchased by national security agencies be produced in the United States.

The Berry Amendment (10 U.S.C. §2533a) is the popular name for a law requiring textiles, clothing, food, and hand or measuring tools purchased by the Department of Defense (DOD) to be grown, reprocessed, reused, or produced wholly in the United States. Congress over the decades has varied the list of products covered by the law. Under the Kissell Amendment (6 U.S.C. §453b), textile, apparel, and footwear products purchased by certain Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies—namely, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the U.S. Coast Guard—must be manufactured in the United States with 100% U.S. inputs.

The Berry and Kissell Amendments have created niche markets for domestic producers. DOD’s Defense Logistics Agency purchased about $2.4 billion of Berry-applicable products in FY2016. DOD’s annual Berry Act purchases equal approximately 2% of domestic textile and apparel shipments and around 1% of domestic production of footwear, food, and hand or measuring tools. Annual purchases of textiles, clothing, and shoes by the TSA and the Coast Guard pursuant to the Kissell Amendment are approximately $30 million.

Proponents of the Berry and Kissell Amendments assert the laws serve to keep certain U.S. production lines operating, provide jobs to American factory workers, and shield the U.S. military from dependence on foreign sources for critical items that could lead to supply problems during times of war or military mobilization. Critics of the amendments point out the laws may undercut free-market competition and can result in higher costs to DOD and DHS because they must pay more for protected products than the free market requires. They also argue the laws are inconsistent with modern practices in manufacturing, which often rely on supply chains that source components and raw materials from multiple countries. Another concern is that these requirements can potentially provoke retaliation and harm foreign sales.

In recent Congresses, legislative action has centered on the scope of the Berry and Kissell Amendments. For example, in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congress extended the Berry Amendment to athletic footwear, ending a voucher program that had allowed new recruits to purchase foreign-made running shoes. Beginning on October 1, 2018, DOD is scheduled to provide 100% U.S.-made running shoes to recruits. In the 115th Congress, H.R. 1811 has been introduced to widen the scope of the Kissell Amendment to all DHS agencies.

A related issue for Congress is the use of prison labor to manufacture Berry-compliant apparel by DOD. A mandatory source provision in law gives an advantage to prison factories if they can provide the desired product within the required time frame at a competitive price. In the 114th Congress, the Federal Prison Industries Competition in Contracting Act of 2015 (H.R. 1699) would have eliminated Federal Prison Industries’ no-bid contract status.

Requirements for obtaining waivers are another congressional concern. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is currently auditing DHS’s compliance with the Kissell Amendment. The audit is expected to be finished in summer 2017.

Congress is also considering the effectiveness of the laws. To address this issue, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) is conducting an assessment of the defense industrial base for textiles, apparel, and footwear, which will include a review of the usefulness of the Berry and Kissell Amendments. That review is scheduled to be released in 2017.