Three members of Maine’s Congressional Delegation were together Wednesday in Skowhegan to visit an athletic shoe factory they say will benefit from the latest National Defense Authorization Act.
The delegation is working to fend off a potential challenge to the made-in-the-USA provision that could arise in the new Congress.
The battle over providing the American military with uniforms and equipment made in the U.S. goes back to World War II. Just months before the war began, Congress passed legislation requiring that most products for military use be made in the United States.
Over the years that requirement was eroded, and new items, including athletic footwear, were not covered. Maine’s members of Congress have been working for a decade on a provision to include athletic footwear and managed to have it added into this year’s National Defense Authorization Act.
That’s a victory for the New Balance factory in Skowhegan, one of three in Maine that make athletic shoes.
“It’s about maintaining the jobs we have in the state of Maine and the state of Massachusetts,” says Brendan Melly, a manager at New Balance. “As a veteran myself of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the reason I came to New Balance is because we do what is right. It’s because we focus on made in USA and keeping jobs in the United States.”
New Balance has 900 workers at three Maine factories in Skowhegan, Norridgewock and Norway. The legislation calls for over 200,000 pairs of athletic shoes a year for new military recruits, and New Balance is the only shoemaker that meets the requirements of the provision.
But delegation members acknowledge that the next authorization could be changed. Republican 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin had to battle in committee and on the floor of the House to keep the provision in the bill and is worried that another battle will occur in 2017.
“I’m always concerned about that. That’s why it is so important to fight on behalf our workers, on behalf of the companies like New Balance that employ our workers here in the state of Maine. But we got to battle down there, leave no stone unturned,” he says.
And the Maine delegation has been unified in the fight. Democratic 1st District U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree did not attend the Skowhegan event, but has worked to line up Democratic votes, just as Poliquin fought against fellow Republican House members that objected to the legislation in the name of free trade.
It was a battle in the Senate as well, and Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has no doubt that it will arise again in the new Congress that takes office next month.
“This was a major victory, but the fight is not over. I fully expect there will be an attempt to repeal the provision,” she says.
U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent, also expects efforts to repeal the measure in committee and on the floor in the new Congress.
President Barack Obama has said he will sign the National Defense Authorization Act. Work on a new authorization measure gets underway soon after Congress goes back to work in January.
