In a November 19 letter to all U.S. Senators, IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger urges support for an important amendment to strengthen “Buy American” requirements for U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) procurement contracts.
The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act is sponsored by Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy and would ensure that U.S. tax dollars are used to support American employers and jobs by requiring the DoD to weigh the amount of domestic jobs that a contract would create or maintain.
“For far too long we have neglected to take into consideration the impact of defense procurement on America’s defense industrial base and, consequently, on the U.S. economy,” wrote Buffenbarger. “While Americans understand intuitively that our tax dollars should be used to support U.S. firms and employ Americans, particularly when it comes to our national defense, we have not tracked the impact of over $700 billion spent by the Department of Defense on manufactured goods over the last five years.”
To read the letter in its entirety, click here.