Berry Amendment
The Berry Amendment is best thought of as a "Domestic Preference" program that mandates the Department of Defense only procure certain end products or components that have been grown, reprocessed, reused, or produced in the United States.
41 U.S.C. § 4862 requires Department of Defense (DoD) to give preference to domestically grown, reprocessed, reused, or produced items related to food, textiles (clothing, threads, fabrics), hand or measuring tools, and the flag of the United States on procurements over t$150,000. The Berry Amendment was passed by Congress to protect the U.S. industry and had its origin in the 1941 Appropriations Act.
Section 842 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2007 (Pub. Law 109-364), entitled “Protection of Strategic Materials Critical to National Security” is a separate provision from the Berry Amendment and it established new provisions specific to specialty metals, codified as 10 U.S.C. § 4862. The Berry Amendment is implemented through the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS 225.7002 Restrictions on food, clothing, fabrics, and hand or measuring tools.). You can also find policy on the Berry Amendment in Procedures, Guidance and Information (PGI 225.7002).
Berry Amendment restrictions apply to funds appropriated or otherwise made available to DoD. Therefore, buying activities spending funds on behalf of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) counties or other Federal agencies must apply the restrictions. In addition, the Berry Amendment applies when DoD provides funding to another agency to buy items, (i.e. the other Federal agency must comply with the Berry Amendment). Violation of the Berry Amendment would generally result in violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) (31 U.S.C. § 1341).
The Berry Amendment restricts purchase of the following articles or items, unless items have been grown, reprocessed, reused, or produced in the U.S.:
- Food
- Clothing and materials and components normally associated with clothing, such as zippers, steel toes in boots. It does not apply to sensors, electronics, or other items added to, and not normally associated with clothing. Small arms protective inserts are not restricted under the Berry Amendment. (This clarification of clothing was included in the FY06 NDAA).
- Tents, tarpaulins, or covers
- Cotton and other natural fiber products
- Woven silk or woven silk blends
- Spun silk yarn for cartridge cloth
- Synthetic fabric or coated synthetic fabric (including all textile fibers and yarns that are for use in such fabrics)
- Canvas products
- Wool (whether in the form of fiber or yarn or contained in fabrics, materials, or manufactured articles)
- Any item of individual equipment (Federal Supply Class 8465) manufactured from or containing such fibers, yarns, fabrics, or materials (e.g. parachutes, upholstery on aircraft seats, cloth filters, seat belts)
- Hand or measuring tools
- The flag of the United States
Exceptions: There are a number of exceptions provided by the law. When using any of the exceptions, the contracting officer must ensure that the appropriate determination or documentation is in the contract file and the normally required DFARS clauses are omitted from the solicitation and contract. See the exceptions at DFARS 225.7002-2.