The Berry Amendment (

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

, Title 10, Section 2533a), requires the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

(DOD) to give preference in procurement to domestically produced, manufactured, or home-grown products, most notably

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

s, and specialty

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

originally passed domestic source restrictions as part of the 1941 Fifth Supplemental DOD

Appropriations Act An appropriation, also known as supply bill or spending bill, is a proposed law that authorizes the expenditure of government funds. It is a bill that sets money aside for specific spending. In some democracies, approval of the legislature is ne ...

in order to protect the domestic industrial base in the time of

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

History

The

Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is the principal set of rules regarding Government procurement in the United States,. and is codified at Chapter 1 of Title 48 of the Code of Federal Regulations, . It covers many of the contracts issued by ...

(DFARS) was amended to include exceptions for the acquisition of food, specialty metals, and

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala (which has two opposable thumbs on each "h ...

measuring tools Instrumentation a collective term for measuring instruments that are used for indicating, measuring and recording physical quantities. The term has its origins in the art and science of scientific instrument-making. Instrumentation can refer to ...

when needed to support contingency operations or when the use of other-than-competitive procedures is based on an unusual and compelling urgency. The specialty metals provision was added in 1973. This provision requires that specialty metals incorporated in products delivered under DOD contracts be melted in the United States or a “qualifying country”. Specialty metals include certain steel, titanium, zirconium and other metal alloys that are important to the DOD. On April 10, 2007, the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics determined that most compliant

fastener A fastener (US English) or fastening (UK English) is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. In general, fasteners are used to create non-permanent joints; that is, joints that can be removed or disman ...

s could not be obtained in sufficient quantity without unreasonably delaying production, and exempted most fasteners from the requirement. Congress has since revised the Berry Amendment in the

Fiscal Year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

2007 and Fiscal Year 2008

National Defense Authorization Act The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is the name for each of a series of United States federal laws specifying the annual budget and expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense. The first NDAA was passed in 1961. The U.S. Congress o ...

s. The revised statute now includes exemptions for certain Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) items, a

de minimis ''De minimis'' is a Latin expression meaning "pertaining to minimal things", normally in the terms ''de minimis non curat praetor'' ("The praetor does not concern himself with trifles") or ''de minimis non curat lex'' ("The law does not concern i ...

exception for small amounts of non-domestic metal (excluding high-performance

magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...

s), a

market basket A market basket or commodity bundle is a fixed list of items, in given proportions. Its most common use is to track the progress of inflation in an economy or specific market. That is, to measure the changes in the value of money over time. A ...

approach to measuring the amount of domestic metal content in articles delivered to DOD, and a national security waiver to prevent the delay in delivery of critically needed systems to

troops A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the infantry section or platoon. Exceptions are the US Cavalry and the King's Troop Ro ...

combat Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

. Additionally, the blanket exemption for fasteners was removed by Congress, now requiring that at least 50% of commercial fastener specialty metal content be domestic. Finally, Congress required that all waivers or Domestic Non-Availability Determinations (DNADs) be reviewed and revised to comply with the amended law. The original 10 U.S.C. 2533a now excludes specialty metals and applies generally to textile materials. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1), passed by both houses of Congress on February 13, 2009, included legislation offered by Congressman

Larry Kissell Lawrence Webb Kissell (born January 31, 1951) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for , a district that stretched from Charlotte to Fayetteville. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 2009 to 2013. In 201 ...

(D-NC) mandating that any textile and apparel products contracted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) be manufactured in the United States with 100 percent U.S. inputs. The "Kissell Amendment" was modeled on and picks up, with little or no modification, many of the specific provisions of the Berry Amendment.

Naming

The Berry Amendment was named for

Ellis Yarnal Berry Ellis Yarnal Berry (October 6, 1902 – April 1, 1999) was an American attorney, newspaper publisher and politician, elected to the United States House of Representatives from South Dakota. Early life and education Berry was born in Larchwood, I ...

, who was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1951 to 1971. During his first term in congress, Berry introduced an amendment to the

Buy American Act The Buy American Act ("BAA", originally , now ) passed in 1933 by Congress and signed by President Hoover on his last full day in office (March 3, 1933), required the United States government to prefer U.S.-made products in its purchases. Other p ...

to expand the law to cover all clothing, cotton, and wool. Ever since 1952 any restrictions in the annual Defense Appropriation Acts became known as Berry Amendments. The Berry Amendment became permanent in 1994 by section 8005 of Public Law (Pub. L.) 103–139.

External links

The text of the "Domestic Specialty Metals" clause

Domestic Non-Availability Determination for fasteners

* ttp://www.manatt.com/uploadedFiles/News_and_Events/Articles_By_Us/Law360_SusanSchmidt.pdf Buy American: Domestic, International Policy Collide

References

{{reflist United States Department of Defense United States federal defense and national security legislation

History

Naming

See also

External links

Further reading

References