U.S.
Senator Sherrod Brown
Cheering
for American Manufacturing on the Field and the Factory Floor
At
the 2012 Summer Olympic opening ceremony, Team USA took the stage
wearing foreign-made red, white, and blue uniforms. At a time when so
many good jobs had disappeared overseas, the news that our Olympic
team was being forced to wear uniforms made overseas was an outrage.
It made no sense that an American organization would place a
Chinese-made beret on the heads of our best athletes when we have
capacity to make high-end apparel right here at home. That’s why I
passed a resolution calling on the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) to
change this, and it promised it would do so.
Last
week, at the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics, we saw the USOC
live up to its pledge, as Team USA took the stage sporting
American-made apparel.
But
while it was great to see Olympic athletes wearing uniforms with a
“USA-made” label, there’s more that we can do now to boost
American manufacturing.
Ohio
has a long and storied history of designing and manufacturing
clothing and apparel and we must continue to help small businesses
across our state grow and succeed. Our apparel companies – like
American Made Bags in Akron and All American Clothing in Arcanum –
can compete with anyone in the world, if given a level playing field.
But, the U.S. government spends more than $1.5 billion on clothing
made in factories overseas.
We
need to be doing all that we can to invest in our own manufacturing
base – and that begins with ensuring our government is doing its
part.
My
legislation, the Wear American Act, would change an existing law that
requires 51 percent of the federal government’s non-defense textile
and apparel purchases be made on U.S.-made products.
We
can do better than that.
Why
shouldn’t apparel and textiles purchased by U.S. tax dollars be 100
percent American-made?
This
isn’t rocket science. It just makes plain sense to put U.S. tax
dollars back into the U.S. economy.
When
we do have to buy goods that are made overseas, we need to make sure
we aren’t doing business with contractors who violate labor rights
and worker safety laws, especially as they apply to child labor.
That’s
why I am urging the General Services Administration (GSA) to ensure
that federal agencies not only disclose the locations of the
factories they contract with, but that they are aware of and take
their working conditions into account when making purchasing
decisions.
We
should be in the business of creating policies that reward
hardworking Ohioans, who want to create jobs in Ohio – rather than
supporting policies that help companies send U.S. jobs overseas or
take part in questionable labor practices.
Right
now, the stakes couldn’t be higher. We must do everything we can to
support American workers.
Sincerely,
Sherrod
Brown
U.S.
Senator
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