Brown — who is seeking re-election this fall to a seat he first won in 2006 — acknowledged that the bill is “symbolic,” and he admitted that he does not know how much the government spends on U.S. flags. There is no central flag-purchasing office for the government, he said.
But there’s substance there, too, he insisted. He doesn’t want flags flown over the Dayton Post Office or other federal sites to be stitched overseas.
“It’s also American jobs,” Brown said at a press conference overlooking the museum’s missile and rocket gallery. “The more (that) taxpayer dollars are involved, the more we can require U.S. workers, U.S. materials, the better our jobs situation.”
“I’ve worked with this senator on a lot of projects, but I got to tell you, this one hits home,” said Tom Ritchie, president of the Dayton-Miami Valley Regional Labor Council. He said his father was a U.S. Navy veteran and his grandson has deployed with the Army.
“Let me tell you, senator, I’m jumping,” Ritchie said. “I’m ahead of you. I’m now calling on the county commissioners and the city commissioners to follow your lead.”
The issue is more complicated than you might think. Since 2014, flags purchased by the Department of Defense have been mandated to be wholly sourced from the U.S. Previously, the requirement for non-defense sectors of the federal government was that flags have at least half of their materials made in America.
In 2021, NPR’s Marketplace reported that, citing data from the Flag Manufacturers Association of America, 94% of American flags were already made in the United States.
But of the small portion of flags imported to the U.S., 94% of those came from China, Marketplace then reported.
Last week, President Biden signed the bill into law, requiring that when the federal government outside of the Department of Defense buys an American flag, that flag must have been made in the United States. Six months from now, the law goes into effect, Brown said.
The Senate unanimously passed the legislation in November 2023 after the bill passed with bipartisan backing out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
“American flags should be made in America, period,” Brown said last month. “Now, because of our years of effort to pass this bill, American flags the federal government buys will be produced and manufactured in America, by American workers.”
“This was a no-brainer,” said Kim Frisco, who is executive director of the Montgomery County Veterans Service Office.
A message seeking comment was sent to Brown’s opponent in the November U.S. Senate election, Bernie Moreno.
Previous attempts at passing similar laws have stalled or were derailed. Brown and Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, have advocated for legislation like this since 2019, Marketplace noted in 2021.
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