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Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the ranking member, and I thank the chairman for including my amendment in the en bloc set of amendments.
Mr. Chairman, my amendment would simply create a service medal to be awarded to atomic veterans or their surviving family members in honor of their service and sacrifice to our Nation.
Between 1945 and 1962, 225,000 members of our Armed Forces participated in hundreds of nuclear weapons tests. The atomic veterans were placed in extremely dangerous areas, constantly exposed to dangerous levels of radiation in the performance of their duties. They were sworn to secrecy, unable to even talk to their doctors about their past exposure to radiation.
Thankfully, Presidents Clinton and George H. W. Bush recognized the atomic veterans' valiant service and acted to provide specialized care and compensation for their harrowing duty.
One of my constituents, Joe Mondello from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, is an atomic veteran and is very proud of his service to our country. Like me, he believes it is past time for the Defense Department to honor with a medal the unique service carried out by atomic veterans.
The DOD has claimed that it would be too difficult to identify which veterans would be awarded this medal. Thankfully, the U.S. Code clearly identifies exactly which veterans are considered atomic veterans.
This is a good amendment, and I urge the support of it.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chair, I thank the Ranking Member for yielding me this time and for his leadership on so many national security and defense issues. I want to thank Chairman THORNBERRY and Ranking Member SMITH for supporting my efforts to bring this amendment to the floor for debate and making it part of this en bloc amendment.
Mr. Chair,is amendment will maintain the current simplified acquisition threshold--or SAT--for a wide variety of items, including textiles, tents, tarpaulins, flags, clothing, apparel, footwear, head gear, a wide variety of cotton, wool, silk and synthetic yarns, and the list goes on.
But most importantly, this amendment ensures that that small and medium-sized American companies, with American workers, using American-made content will continue to have the opportunity to do business with the Pentagon and provide textiles, clothing, apparel and other such materials to our service men and women at good prices.
In Dorchester, Massachusetts, AbilityOne provides employment opportunities for people who are blind or who have significant disabilities. They manufacture Berry-compliant items, including uniforms, chemical protective garments, tents, tarpaulins, hats, caps and other clothing and textile items. This amendment protects their jobs and their relationship with the DOD. It means textile, footwear and apparel manufacturers in North Brookfield, Fall River and elsewhere in Massachusetts can continue to support our troops with their high quality products and materials.
The current language in the NDAA would raise the SAT from $150,000 to $500,000. My amendment simply maintains the $150,000 threshold. Now the difference between $150 and $500,000 might not sound like much. But if that threshold had been raised in FY 2014, then 6,813 contracts totaling over $337 million in textile and clothing alone would have been exempt from the Berry amendment. This amendment keeps the Berry Amendment strong, and it keeps America strong.
Mr. Chair, this amendment is a compromise. The original amendment that I submitted to the House Rules Committee would have also maintained the current SAT on food and on specialty metals, hand tools, measuring tools, and so forth. Chairman Thornberry did not support maintaining the current SAT on those items, and in the spirit of compromise we narrowed the scope of the amendment to textiles, clothing, apparel and related materials. I hope as the NDAA moves through the legislative process that the scope of my original amendment will be reinstated.
This amendment is supported by a broad array of national textile and manufacturing organizations, and I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and the en bloc amendments in total.
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