Washington, D.C. – Today, the House of Representatives passed the Berry Amendment Extension Act introduced by Rep. Larry Kissel (D-NC) and cosponsored by Congressman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) and 68 other members of Congress. The legislation requires the Department of Homeland Security to purchase American-made textile and apparel.

"I will always demand that the federal government buy American-made products. It is good for our economy but it also is vital to our national security to be self-sufficient for our nation's needs," Congressman Taylor stated.

The Berry Amendment, originally enacted in 1941, requires the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to procure a range of domestically produced or grown items with 100% U.S. content. The updated legislation sets out similar requirements for textile and apparel purchases made by DHS. The legislation covers all agencies within DHS, which include the Transportation Security Agency, U.S. Customs & Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, U.S. Secret Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The U.S. textile and apparel industry has been battered by a flood of unfairly subsidized imports in recent years. According to the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, since December 2000, the United States has run a $575 billion trade deficit in textiles and apparel and suffered a loss of 587,000 middle-class American textile and apparel manufacturing jobs. The textile industry has been particularly hard hit by the current economic downturn, having lost 60,000 jobs with the closing of 44 textile plants nationwide.

For the last 60 years, the Berry Amendment has served our nation well. Its expansion to DHS will further benefit American manufacturing. The brave men and women of DHS deserve to wear uniforms made by proud American workers. Those wearing these uniforms and those who make them share common goals and values, among them, our national security. The only way to ensure such is the case is to make these items right here at home.