When freshman Rep. Larry Kissell, D-N.C., successfully amended the economic stimulus bill last winter to prevent airport-security uniforms from being made overseas, the textile industry lauded his activism in protecting American jobs.
A bureaucratic glitch has put much of the Kissell Amendment on hold, however, potentially threatening hundreds of manufacturing jobs and putting tens of millions of domestic manufacturing dollars at risk.
For now, Transportation Security Administration uniforms, which would have to be made completely in the United States under the new law, still can be manufactured in Mexico, Canada or Chile, all because of an oversight that happened years before Kissell even was elected.
The three nations never were told that airport security uniforms might be included in a “buy American” clause someday. So until new international deals can be negotiated, those countries are free to bid on new textiles.
“Obviously, this is a matter that needs to be fixed,” said Auggie Tantillo, the executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, an organization that’s dedicated to preserving domestic manufacturing jobs. “The value of the Kissell Amendment is undermined by this glitch.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has said it’s working quickly to repair the damage, but officials have no estimate of how long it’ll take to negotiate new deals with Mexico, Canada and Chile.
Until then, the pain could be especially acute in North Carolina, which has lost more than 10,000 textile jobs in the past year, and the rest of the textile-heavy Southeast. The fabric for the TSA’s uniforms already is made in the United States, by Milliken & Co. in Spartanburg, S.C., but the clothing is assembled in Honduras and Mexico.
