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4/13/2009
Buy American not all motherhood and apple pie
Wednesday, a City of Appleton committee will be considering a request union members are bringing up in cities throughout Wisconsin. According to the Post-Crescent, Appleton is among 76 Wisconsin municipal governments targeted by the United Steelworkers. Kaukauna has recently passed the “Buy American” proposal, the first governing body to do so in the Fox Cities and among 8 so far throughout the state. Similar proposals have been sent to Clintonville, Combined Locks, Kimberly, Menasha, Neenah, New London, Winneconne and Outagamie and Winnebago counties. The resolution, (here, p. 27) preceded by a bunch of Whereases, asks the Appleton Common Council to “stand up for Wisconsin working families” and “Buy American.”
BE IT RESOLVED THAT, we the undersigned will work to maximize the creation of American jobs and restoring economic growth and opportunity by spending economic recovery plan funds on products and services that both create jobs and help keep Americans employed.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, we commit to purchasing only products and services that are made or performed in the United States of America whenever and wherever possible with any economic recovery monies provided to (Appleton) by the American taxpayers, AND
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, as legislators of(the City of Appleton), we commit to publish any requests to waive these procurement priorities so as to give American workers and producers the opportunity to identify and provide the American products and services that will maximize the success of our nation's economic recovery program. City Attorney Jim Walsh doesn’t take a “position on the appropriateness of the resolution, but ” details pertinent stipulations of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and ultimately, suggests possible problems with a “Buy American” resolution. (p. 25, here)
[The Act stipulates that a project built] using funds approved under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, requires all of the iron, steel and manufactured goods used in that project to be produced in the United States. The Federal Act is in itself over 400 pages long. While not looking at every single page, I was unable to locate a definition of "manufactured goods used in the project". Interpreted broadly, manufactured goods could include just about anything in a remodeling project. For example, would the furniture acquired in the remodeling of the Police Department come within the terms of manufactured goods used in the project?
As the Committee will recall, this discussion arose several years ago when a proposed Buy American resolution was introduced…. Questions arose concerning the possibility of finding products that would match equipment currently owned by the City. Additionally, it is unclear from the resolution what made or performed in the United States of America would include. Are items made in another country but assembled in the United States products and services that are performed in the United States? How is that determined?
Additionally, the resolution further requests that the City publish a request to waive these procurement priorities to give American workers and producers the opportunity to identify and provide American products and services that will maximize the success of our Nation's economic recovery program. How are we required to publish such a request? How long is the opportunity to respond and who makes the decision whether the response is appropriate? Walsh raises excellent questions. How would you vote?
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
This is not an easy issue. The cat is out of the bag. Globalization is here to stay. 40% of our jobs can be outsourced today. Fight it if you will, but you will ultimately lose. Get smart. Train yourself in an immovable profession. Health care is the most stable, especially if we get effective reform that expands care to everybody.
Government and teaching could be okay, but they are also risky as politicians favor spending taxpayer dollars on special interest projects.
But limiting foreign product purchases is a feel-good short term fix. Our politicians have already sold your jobs to the outsourcers by giving tax breaks to the companies that outsource. If you don’t lose your job to China or India, you stand to lose it to illegal immigrants. Or to H-1B visa holders that are being pushed by corporations to promote a glut in technical workers. Sadly, we will face this problem until U.S. wages meet China's wages.
Jack Lohman (Mon Apr 13 09:04:09 2009)
JO:
I just attended a conference on this issue and they defined the "buy American" provision as requiring a materially significant change in the makeup of the product here in the USA. That means you could assemble the product here, but purchase the steel, parts, and subasemblies overseas. I do not know how they would measure "a materially significant change" but then you are talking about government regulations. I think before the council or the counties vote on this they should discuss the definition and more importantly how they will be able to monitor it. I can see a whole new level of bureacracy in the purchasing department trying to monitor what is or is not "American made". I think it should be a factor if costs are roughly equal but would not want to increase the cost of the product or project if "buy American" meant a signicicant percentage more for the taxpayer.
Mike Thomas (Mon Apr 13 09:42:45 2009)
Jack, healthcare isn't as "stable" as you think...I ended up with only ONE 4-hour shift for the whole month of Feb, and 12 hrs total in March.
And teaching isn't always safe either. My husband's school district laid of a number of teachers. (But managed to keep their paper-pushers in the central office, so the school district's waste still continues.)
emily matthews (Tue Apr 14 11:54:40 2009)
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