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Monday, February 24, 2014

It's About Time

Many U.S. folks, including ourselves, try to buy "made in America" products whenever possible. Of course, for many items, such as, electronics and cameras, that's no longer possible.

To Grenville and myself, the thought of buying an American flag labelled "made in China" or anyplace other than the USA, just seemed wrong. And, our U.S. flags were always made here. 

Sure, U.S. made often costs more, but that was not the issue.

YET, until this past Friday, American flags purchased by the U.S. military were not — ready or not — completely "made in America."

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) annually buys 1,000 to 2,000 flags for purposes that include flying them over the Pentagon, military bases and ships, and burial flags for military personnel killed in action.

Where were these made? Not necessarily all in America, because although major DoD vendors are U.S. companies, materials like fabrics or inks could have been outsourced abroad.

Not any more. Under new rules, all U.S. flags will be entirely made in America. as part of the 2014 omnibus appropriations bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last month. 

The new policy for flags went into effect Friday, Feb 21, and states that: American flags, “including the materials and components thereof, must be made in the United States."
That's just plain common sense to us.
What took them so long —and who was responsible?
Credit goes to Congressman Mike Thompson, a California Democrat, seeking a ninth term in Congress. Thompson has said that he pushed for the change because he thought it was just common sense that American flags be made in the U.S. (hmm, you think?)
“American flags are something we can all agree on should be made in America,” he said. “I don’t think it’s right that our military service men and women should be fighting under flags made in foreign countries. Our men (and) women in uniform should serve under American-made flags.
Thompson wrote a provision that applied the existing Berry Amendment passed in 1941 to flags as well. That amendment restricts the DoD from buying food, clothing, fabrics, textiles or tools that aren’t grown or produced in the U.S. 
The Berry Amendment requires the DoD to give preference in procurement to domestically produced, manufactured, or home-grown products, most notably food, clothing, fabrics and specialty metals. Congress originally passed domestic source restrictions as part of the 1941 Fifth Supplemental DoD Appropriations Act to  to protect the domestic industrial base in time of war, specifically WWII.
And, before last week, American flags had not been included on that list.

Now, they are. We encourage everyone who displays flags depicting their country, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, to seek out those made in their own country.

It's just common sense to us — what do you think?

18 comments:

Country Gal said...

I thought they were made in the USA . I am glad they are now .Our governments really need to make a stand and get our country's to depend on them selves and not on other countries I mean we all have the technology and know how so why not , it would give back jobs to the people of our countries ! Get more of the little guy's back in business and their factories and craft on the go and support local farmers more and encourage more to farm . We are the opposite we seem to be loosing things that are Canadian here . I don't think our flag is made here in Canada either where it should be . Our country's need to pull together help each other like they did back in the days Thanks for sharing . Have a good day !

LONDONLULU said...

I'm glad they made that move, perhaps it'll finally kickstart the idea that we don't have to outsource everything to death! Things made domestically are indeed more expensive but I feel the long-term costs are cheaper and worth it....with hopefully less waste (from shipping back/forth), environmental issues (we have more enforced standards), occupational safety & lives...

MadSnapper said...

good idea, to bad they don't do that with everything and stop putting our workers out of work to feed other countries

Montanagirl said...

I totally agree. I saw that on the news the other night. It's about time.

DeniseinVA said...

I am very happy to hear this. Thanks for sharing this post.

Cheryl @ TFD said...

I quite agree. This is one law that I can say that I'm happy about!

Rebecca said...

I try to always check the label. Especially if it is something I put on or in my body!

L. D. said...

I am glad to see it too. I know the flimsy little ones that were massed produced and glued to stick were disgraceful as a product even though they were so affordable. We do need to draw the line somewhere.

Out on the prairie said...

Many products have been dismissed to other countries. Perhaps we forgot what made us so strong. We told China it was wrong to be a communist nation so long they have finally listened and have the cheap manpower to take over industries.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

It's great to read so many comments on this post. Made in America and/or produced in USA items may be harder to find, but we read the item labels all the time, especially food, including food products.

Connie said...

It does make good sense that our flags should be made here!

Ludwig said...

Hurrah for you!
Last year I was trying to purchase a US flag and could not find one that was labeled "Made in USA", so we have not been displaying a flag on appropriate occasions. I will continue to decline "outsourced" flags - I am an American by choice and proud of it.

DeniseinVA said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeniseinVA said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeniseinVA said...

Not doing too well with my comments here, I accidentally deleted twice! Oh well!

I came over to let you know that Tanya has a real neat train on her blog post today. You can see it here:

http://monroega.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-greenbrier-presidential-express.html

jp@A Green Ridge said...

I prefer made in America...although I will say that many winter garments I've purchased made in China are warmer than a few made in America. I wonder why?...:)JP

William Kendall said...

It certainly makes sense to me. Outsourcing everything does not help in the long run, but certainly not your own flag.

Elaine said...

Right on! Flags especially should be Made in America, and I'd like to see much more with that label on it.