The Berry Amendment: Requiring Defense Procurement to Come From Domestic Sources
Abstract
The Berry Amendment requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to give preference in procurement to domestically produced, manufactured, or home grown products, notably food, clothing, fabrics, and specialty metals. In order to protect the U.S. industrial base during periods of adversity and war, Congress passed domestic source restrictions as part of the 1941 Fifth Supplemental DOD Appropriations Act; these provisions later became the Berry Amendment. Since then numerous other items have been proposed and/or added. Congress modified the Berry Amendment in Section 832 of S. 1438, the FY2002 DOD Authorization Act, Public Law 107-107. The Berry Amendment is now part of the United States Code, Title 10, Section 2533a. The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) was amended to include exceptions for the acquisition of food, speciality metals, and hand or measuring tools when needed to support contingency operations or when the use of other than competitive procedures is based on an unusual and compelling urgency; it was revised in January 2005 to add new items, components, and materials covered under the Berry Amendment. In the spring of 2001, Congress revisited the Berry Amendment largely in response to a controversy involving the Army's procurement of black berets. DOD had granted the Defense Logistics Agency authority to waive the Berry Amendment in order to purchase berets from foreign sources. However, it was reported that DOD had known for 25 years that no U.S. firm produced a solely domestic beret; this suggested that other violations of the Berry Amendment may have been overlooked or under-reported.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 10, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA435322
Entities
People
- Valerie B. Grasso
Organizations
- Defense Acquisition University