
American Combat Boot Alliance welcomes introduction of BOOTS Act
The Berry Amendment requires the department of defense to purchase certain items, primarily clothing and food, from domestic sources.
'Over the past several years, there has been a concerning influx of poorly made, non-Berry Amendment-compliant, foreign-sourced footwear procured by United States Army and United States Air Force service members,' ACBA, a coalition comprising US manufacturers committed to the readiness and combat effectiveness of warfighters, said in a letter to Nikki Budzinski from the House of Representatives and Tammy Duckworth from the Senate.
The American Combat Boot Alliance has welcomed introduction of the Better Outfitting Our Troops (BOOTs) Act to ensure that all combat boots supplied to the US military are indigenously made in accordance with the Berry Amendment. Over the past several years, there has been a concerning influx of poorly made, non-Berry Amendment-compliant, foreign-sourced footwear procured by US military staff.
'The growing reliance on foreign products has led to the further erosion within the domestic footwear industrial base that supports the warfighter, resulting in over 750,000 pair of non-US manufactured combat boots being sold to Army and Air Force personnel each year,' the letter noted.
These inferior products are subject to import tariffs, leaving vendors no choice but to pass the additional costs onto service members. These increased costs may exceed retail prices of domestically manufactured combat footwear, the ACBA letter said.
Military service members receive annual Congressionally-appropriated uniform allowances for non-issued uniform items. The BOOTs Act will ensure that they can effectively use their taxpayer-funded uniform allowance to purchase American-made combat footwear, the letter said.
This legislation also helps secure the challenged combat footwear supply chain industrial base, diversify the selection of domestic combat boots and ensure that US companies can meet surge demands in times of crisis, it added.
ACBA member entities include the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the National Council of Textile Organisations, the US Footwear Manufacturers Association and several other private manufacturers.
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Hindustan Times
37 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
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'There is no such thing as voluntary displacement amongst a population that has been under constant bombardment for nearly two years and has been cut off from essential aid,' said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of the Refugees International advocacy group and a former senior U.S. Agency for International Development official who reviewed the plan. The source who worked on planning for the camps told Reuters that the intent "is to take the fear factor away," enabling Palestinians to "escape control of Hamas" and providing them "a safe area to house their families." The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's retaliatory military assault on the enclave has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, caused a hunger crisis, and displaced nearly Gaza's entire population internally. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.


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