On April 18th, 2017, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order #13788 into effect reinforcing the Buy American Act and requiring the US government to start implementing more ‘Buy American and Hire American’ policies with additional scrutiny. This not only affects manufacturers/vendors that sell to the US government, but also farmers that supply produce to school districts, government facilities, and more. More specifically, the USDA’s School Lunch program must now comply with the recently signed EO by discontinuing waivers and preferring procurement from US Farmers.
With EO #13788 following its scheduled timeline, there is increasing pressure for the U.S. Government to implement more scrutinized procurement policies regarding the Buy American Act (BAA). Luckily, there is an easy solution for farmers to proactively meet and exceed increased procurement regulations.
Nearly eight months after President Donald J. Trump signed his executive order “Buy American and Hire American,” an expert on certifying whether goods are made in the United States shared with Big League Politics the challenges in certification and enforcing Trump’s intentions.
Adam Reiser, the CEO and founder of Certified, Inc., told Big League Politics he is seeing no action in the executive branch to move the president’s executive order forward.
A source familiar with how the White House drafted the executive order told Big League Politics: “There are zero teeth in it, you know? Let’s of fanfare, lots of publicity, back-slapping and hand-shaking with Trump–and now, it is getting resisted, like as if it meant nothing.”
According to the president’s directive, all agencies were supposed to have turned into both the Department of Commerce and the Office of Management and Budget how they plan to comply. These plans are to include, searchable databases of certified vendors, storage arrangements for the documents and simplifications of their internal procurement procedures.
Reiser said Trump’s executive order was the president’s attempt to bring federal procurement back in synch with the law.
Byrne’s idea was that given support by the Hearst newspapers and by Hoover’s Commissioner of Customs Francis F.A. Eble, who would go on to start the Buy American Club.
“The law says that the U.S. government has to show preferential treatment to U.S. manufacturers,” Reiser said. “It is so the government has to buy from its own.”
Reiser said that from the 1970s, the federal government has been providing waivers to the 1933 law. “In the 1980s and 1990s, it has picked up big-time.”
President Donald J. Trump holding his Executive Order 13788 at the April 18, 2017 Kenosha, Wis., signing ceremony. (White House photo)
A senior administration official speaking on background on Easter Monday, the day before the executive order was signed in the headquarters of the tool company Snap-On in Kenosha, Wisconsin, said the executive order would correct the abuse of the Buy American Act waiver process.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump met with a dozen American manufacturers at the White House on Monday, pledging to slash regulations and cut corporate taxes, but warning them he would impose taxes on imports if they move production outside the country.
Trump, who took office on Friday, promised to bring manufacturing plants back to the United States – an issue he said helped him win the Nov. 8 election – and has not hesitated to call out by name companies that he thinks should bring outsourced production back home.
He asked the group of chief executives from companies including Ford, Dell Technologies, Tesla and others to make recommendations in 30 days to stimulate manufacturing, Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris told reporters.
Trump, a Republican who took over from former Democratic President Barack Obama, was expected to sign executive orders later on Monday to renegotiate the free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico, and to formally withdraw the United States from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The new president told the CEOs that he would like to cut corporate taxes to the 15 percent to 20 percent range, down from current statutory levels of 35 percent – a pledge that will require cooperation from the Republican-led U.S. Congress.
Made in America? 5 charged with fraud in alleged boot scheme
By: John North, WBIR,September 16, 2016(Photo Credit: Spc. Stephanie Ramirez/Army)
Executives and employees at Tennessee defense contractor for years assured the U.S. military that the boots they made for troops came from America when in fact they’d been shipped from China, the U.S. government alleges.
Five employees and principals of the former Wellco Enterprises Inc. were indicted this week in U.S. District Court in Greeneville, Tennessee. They appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifton Corker, pleading not guilty.
The defendants: Vincent L. Ferguson, 65, of Knoxville; Matthew L. Ferguson, 40, of Lenoir City; Kerry J. Ferguson, 35, of Houston; Matthew H. Martland, 32, of Knoxville; and Stephanie L. Kaemmerer, 44, of Knoxville.
The five are free on bond pending trial. Counts against them include wire fraud, major fraud against the United States and smuggling goods into the U.S.
The charges allege the defendants conspired from December 2008 to August 2012 in a scheme to sell thousands of bogus boots to the U.S. government for troops. From 2006 through 2012, the Defense Department paid Wellco more than $138 million for military footware, according to the indictment. Continue reading “Made in America? 5 charged with fraud in alleged boot scheme”→
Gabila Food Products, Inc. shows their original Coney Island square knishs, which have been off the market for at least six weeks. A fire at a Long Island factory billed as the world’s biggest maker of knishes has led to a nationwide shortage of the fried, square doughy pillows of pureed potatoes and other fillings. (AP Photo/Gabila Food Products, Inc.)
COPIAGUE, N.Y. – A fire at a factory billed as the world’s biggest maker of knishes has created nationwide shock and oy for those who can’t seem to find the Jewish treats anywhere.
Kvetching has been going on at delis, diners, food carts and groceries since the six-week-long shortage began, but lovers of the square fried doughy pillows of pureed potatoes may not have to go without much longer. The factory promises an end to the knish crunch by Thanksgiving, which coincides with the start of Hanukkah.
“Our customers … are calling us saying they are literally searching supermarkets and stores and they’re all asking when we’ll be back,” Stacey Ziskin Gabay, one of the owners of the 92-year-old Gabila’s Knishes, which sells about 15 million knishes a year.
A fire Sept. 24 at the Gabila’s plant in Copiague, Long Island, damaged the machinery that makes the company’s biggest seller — “The Original Coney Island Square Knish,” which also come filled with kasha or spinach.
Gabila’s, which also makes matzoh balls, blintzes and latkas, sells the knishes both online and at retail outlets around the country, with New York, Florida and California leading the sales.
“For the last month I haven’t had any knishes — my heart is broken,” said Carol Anfuso, a native New Yorker who has been without a knish to nosh since the BJ’s Wholesale store near her Atlanta home suddenly stopped stocking them.
But Anfuso didn’t learn of the shortage until she visited her sister for lunch at the Pastrami King restaurant in Merrick, Long Island, and found that it was out of stock, too.
Pastrami King owner Joe Yamali said he normally sells about 2,000 knishes a month.
“It brings you back to your childhood and they’re just so delicious,” Yamali said. “Gabila is square and fried. You bite into it and the potato oozes out. It’s very good.”
Katz’s Delicatessen, the 125-year-old landmark on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, ordinarily sells about 6,000 knishes a month.
“I usually get four to take home,” grumbled Brooklyn native Forrest Gurl. “Their crunchiness, their hard corners, the mustard and sauerkraut you put on them. You can’t beat a knish.”
Like most places, the round, baked version is still available. But Gurl harumphed a familiar sentiment of knish devotees: “Who gets round knishes?”
Jesse Hochberg, a retired IT employee, didn’t know there was a shortage until he got to the Katz’s counter.
“I miss them,” he said. “It’s something I grew up with. I like the taste, sliced with mustard. … I always look for them, and I haven’t seen them recently.”
Katz’s chef Kenny Kohn has grown weary of explaining the shortage to customers. Along with the pastrami sandwiches, he serves up a typical New York attitude to the ongoing complaints.
Nearly eight months after President Donald J. Trump signed his executive order “
