Lateefah Simon: “this is an amendment that tries to make our present Buy American Act effective on defense contracts. What it says is…”

“this is an amendment that tries to make our present Buy American Act effective on defense contracts. What it says is that when a defense contractor submits a bill, the defense contractor should indicate what percentage of that contract is going to be manufactured here in the United States, and then that should be a high factor in the determination by the Defense Department in consideration for that contract. And we also make clear that this is not to violate any agreement, any treaty we have with any other country and any memorandum of understanding we have with any other country. The reality is that the Buy American Act just has not worked. I had the experience of being on an American base and seeing a truck made in another country, a U.S. military truck there, and I thought, you know, we really ought to be buying trucks made in the United States of America.”