Thursday, July 23, 2009

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Floor Statement on Fire-Resistant Military Uniforms
Remarks as Delivered on the Senate Floor

Mr. President, a few years ago this body granted a Berry waiver on the purchase of rayon fiber made in Austria for the purpose of making fire-resistant uniforms of the U.S. Marines, Army, and aviators. The Berry requirement is the buy American requirement, meaning that you first have to buy American before you go offshore to buy a product.

At the beginning of the Iraq war, the U.S. Army and Marines noticed immediately we had a tremendous increase, because of the nature of that war, in burn injuries. They conducted a survey and looked at the 24 best alternatives they could find anywhere to make fire-resistant uniforms. They finally settled on a para-aramid fire-resistant fiber blend of rayon with nylon.

Environmental Protection Agency requirements to make rayon make it prohibitive in the United States, and there is no rayon produced in the United States. It is produced in Austria.

So the Berry waiver we received a few years ago was to allow them to import, through now and 2013, rayon, fire-resistant rayon, which in the United States is blended for fabric, cut, sewn, produced, and shipped to the U.S. military--10,000 American jobs. The rayon cannot be produced in the United States because of the EPA requirements.

The reason to request an exception and postpone the sunset in 2013 is because the military procurement in the outyears is now reaching beyond that. With the absence of a Berry waiver for those years, they would have to zero out the purchase for those uniforms which, in turn, would mean the people who make those uniforms would not have the certainty of the Berry waiver because it would be subject to a Berry waiver again. Therefore, the investment they would make would be limited to the years they knew they could make the guaranteed deliveries.

I have offered this amendment as an extension for that very reason. The U.S. Army, the Marine Corps, and the aviators who use the material love it because it breathes, it gives them some circulation, it has tremendous protection against burns and it has performed very satisfactorily and they want to continue to use it and there is no American competitor that can meet or exceed it.

Obviously, if there were, that waiver would go away and we could compete, but at this time they do not. I ask the Members for their consideration on behalf of our military men and women in harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq and wherever they might be for the uniform that was chosen for the very battle we are now in because it was the best the military could find anywhere in the country.

***

Mr. President, let me comment, if I can. The Berry ``Buy American'' program is absolutely 100 percent on target. The reason for waivers is when we find that there is no domestic product equal to or better than a product that has a component overseas, in the interest of our men and women in the military, we give the waiver so it doesn't keep us--so we do not prohibit ourselves from having the best material possible. If an American domestic manufacturer produces an alternative fiber or fabric which meets or exceeds the fire-resistant para-aramid rayon that is now being used, the Berry waiver will no longer apply because there will be a domestically produced U.S. product that is superior or equal to that particular product of rayon.

So I would respectfully submit to the Senators from Virginia and South Carolina that the argument that there is a prohibition--that this would keep people from making an investment in R&D to produce something better is the reverse. It actually will accelerate the need for them to make the R&D investment to try and produce something better in the United States, if they can.

One last point. The U.S. military did 24 different evaluations after the initial move into Iraq when we had so many burn injuries. It determined this fabric has to be the best for our men and women aviators, men and women in the Marine Corps, men and women in the Army in combat, and it has performed well in Afghanistan and Iraq ever since.

So I would submit the R&D argument is actually accelerated with the extension of the waiver, and the proof of the product is in the pudding which we have seen with the safety of our troops and our men and women in harm's way.