Soldiers carry them into battle, fly them high over foreign bases, and triumphantly carry them in processions, but those stars and stripes, until now, have often been made in China.
That irony spurred North Bay Congressman Mike Thompson (D) to write legislation requiring flags purchased by the Department of Defense (DoD) be 100 percent “Made in America.” That legislation is now law, signed as part of the 2014 omnibus appropriations bill.
“I thought it was appalling our Department of Defense would have flags made in other countries,” Thompson said. “But it’s also important because we need to be making more in America.”
While the military flag rule passed, a similar bill requiring all government-purchased flags be made in the US has repeatedly failed. The change isn’t cheap. Chinese-made flags cost significantly less than all-American ones.
The new requirements apply the existing Berry Amendment passed in 1941 to flags. That amendment bans the Defense Department from buying food, clothing, military uniforms, fabrics, stainless steel, and hand or measuring tools that are not grown or produced in the United States, except in rare exceptions.
“I am proud to have worked to pass this law so that our men and women in uniform never have to fight under a US flag made overseas, and so that our Defense Department never again spends American tax dollars on a US flag made overseas,” said the Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient.
Thompson toured North Bay Industries on Tuesday. The Rohnert Park company makes thousands of flags each year, mainly for the Department of Veteran Affairs, which was already required to source memorial flags made in the United States with American-only materials.
North Bay Industries is a vocational rehabilitation center dedicated to assisting mentally, physically, and developmentally disabled adults through participation in agency-sponsored training, housing, and employment programs.
Thompson had visited the Rohnert Park facility last year and found out that not all flags purchased by the military were being made in the US, which he said prompted the need for the legislation.
美军士兵们不仅扛着国旗战斗，这些国旗还高悬在美军驻海外军事基地上，放在凯旋美军的行囊里，然而这些美国星条旗却常常是由中国制造。
这让北湾（North Bay）民主党国会议员麦克·汤普森（Mike Thompson）深受刺激，他写信给美国立法机构要求美国国防部（Dod）购买的星条旗必须是百分之百美国制造。这个提议现在已经变成了法律，国旗的购买成为了美国2014年综合拨款法案的一部分。
汤普森说到：“国防部会购买外国生产的美国国旗，我想这真是耸人听闻，但这也很能说明问题，因为美国需要制造更多的国旗。”
军队使用美国本土生产的国旗法案已被通过，但与之相似的一项要求所有由政府购买的国旗也必须产自美国的提案却屡屡未能得到批准，要改变现状可不是易事，因为中国产的星条旗要比美国产的便宜很多。
这项新的诉求适用于1941年通过的有关国旗的贝瑞修正案（Berry Amendment)，该修正案禁止美国防部购买任何美国已经不生产或制造的食品、衣物、军装、织物、不锈钢制品、手工工具和测绘工具，但一些稀有紧俏物资除外。
这位越战老兵、紫心勋章（Purple Heart）获得者说：“我为能实现这项法案的通过而感到骄傲，从此以后我们的军人们再也不会在从国外买来的国旗底下战斗了，国防部也不会拿着美国纳税人的钱到国外去买国旗了。”
汤普森周二的时候参观了北湾工业区，罗纳公园公司（Rohnert Park company)每年生产几千面国旗，主要销售给美国退役军人事务部（Department of Veteran Affairs），退役军人部早已要求该公司使用由美国本土原料制造的有纪念意义的国旗。
北湾工业区是一个职业康复中心，该中心致力于通过由一些机构赞助的培训、食宿和就业从而对那些心理上、生理上或成长上有障碍的成年人提供帮助。
汤普森去年曾到访过罗纳公园公司，得知军方购买的国旗并不完全都产于美国，他称这触发了他提议立法的念头。
