Buy American

Take a look at the agenda of the upcoming Take Back The American Dream Conference. There is a session on Tuesday titled, Strategy on State Level for Buy America Campaign.

This session will look at ways to trigger state-level procurement rules that say when states use taxpayer money to buy things, they should be buying American-made things, from American companies that employ American workers and pay American taxes.

The situation today is that some state-level procurement laws are very weak. As a result, a lot of tax dollars go to purchase goods made overseas instead of goods made in the USA. The impact of this often includes delays or cost overruns such as what happened with the San Francisco to Oakland California Bay Bridge, as well as the loss of jobs and revenue in the US.

The idea that national and state governments should "Buy American" isn't in any way a partisan issue. If you look at polling you find that Republicans as well as Democrats believe that at least now while we are in economic distress, and trading "partners" are selling to us but not buying from us, our tax dollars should be supporting American companies and jobs.

This conference session looks at 5 model bills to strengthen the efficacy and transparency of domestic procurement laws at the state level. It is a strategy session to (1) share the legislation, (2) talk about strategy, (3) listen to ideas.

About the Conference

This is from the Take Back The American Dream Conference 2011 description:

The Campaign for America's Future is teaming up with Van Jones' "Rebuild The Dream" organization "to add fuel to the grassroots fire that has already been lit—in Madison, Wisconsin and town halls all over the country. We want to channel that grassroots energy into an unstoppable force."

The conference takes place in Washington, DC October 3-5 at the Washington Hilton & Towers, 1919 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Click here to register to attend. Please contact events@ourfuture.org with any additional questions regarding registration for the conference or the Awards Gala.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future