The National Council of Textile Organisations (NCTO) in the United States recently welcomed passage of a bipartisan infrastructure bill in the US Senate that will provide billions of dollars in new spending to revitalise the nation’s roads, bridges and railways and help reconstitute a domestic supply chain for personal protective equipment.

“We commend the Senate for passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which will provide critical resources for our nation’s aging infrastructure and at the same time help incentivize the reshoring of personal protective equipment (PPE) production, an important priority of the US textile industry,” said NCTO president and chief executive officer Kim Glas in a statement.

NCTO worked with congressional allies to include a version of the Make PPE in America Act, a piece of legislation co-sponsored by Senator Rob Portman (Republican) and Senator Gary Peters (Democratic), in the infrastructure legislative package.

The bill ensures all PPE purchased by the departments of homeland security, health and human services and veterans affairs are Berry Amendment-compliant; guarantees long-term contracts (a minimum of two years) to US manufacturers; and creates a tiered preference for PPE made in the Western hemisphere by the country’s free trade partners using US components, after domestic manufacturing capacity has been maximised.

NCTO will continue to urge the government to purchase Berry-compliant products containing cent per cent domestic content for PPE to help bolster the full US production chain in the future.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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