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. 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. 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 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 underreported. Largely as a result of the controversy over the black berets, the Berry Amendment was enacted into law in the FY2002 DoD Authorization Act (P.L. 107-107) and is now codified at Title 10, U.S.C., Section 2533a. The 109th Congress enacted new legislative initiatives affecting the Berry Amendment. Section 842 of the FY2007 Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 109-364) has moved the specialty metal clause out of the Berry Amendment and into a new statutory provision, Title 10, U.S.C., Section 2533b; created a new exception for certain commercially available electronic components; granted DoD authority to waive specialty metal requirements for products manufactured before the date the new statute was enacted; and established a Strategic Materials Board to recommend items critical for national security. It remains to be seen what the impact of the new changes will be. Much of it is subject to DoD's interpretation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 24, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA480787
Entities
People
- Valerie B. Grasso
Organizations
- Library of Congress