House OKs new rule for clothing allowance - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

House OKs new rule for clothing allowance

A proposal that could someday force service members to spend their annual clothing allowance only on American-made goods passed the House on Wednesday as part of a larger acquisition reform package.

The allowance — $530.42 for enlisted men and $618.56 for enlisted women who have three or more years of service — is paid on the anniversary of enlistment to buy clothing and other uniform items that are not provided by the military. Allowances are less for people with fewer than three years of service: Men get $356.40 and women get $417.60.

Officers do not receive an annual uniform allowance except under unusual circumstances.

While the Defense Department operates under a variety of so-called Buy American laws and policies that are supposed to promote spending on U.S.-made goods, service members are not required to use the allowance for only U.S.-made items, said Rep. Robert E. Andrews, D-N.J., one of the architects of the acquisition reform bill passed by the House.

While the allowance is government money, there are no rules about where the money must be spent — although service members can face inspections to determine if they own all of the required uniform items.

Rep. Larry Kissell, D-N.C., said he’d like to see allowances spent on U.S. goods, but notes that questions have been raised about whether this is feasible; domestic manufacturers may not produce enough.

By voice vote, the House approved a two-step amendment that could lead to restrictions on how clothing allowances could be spent.

The first step is a study by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, about whether there are enough domestic manufacturers of items on the clothing lists to make a buy-American rule feasible. The second step requires the Defense Department to review the GAO study, and to tell Congress if applying the new rules would work.

Exactly how long this might take isn’t clear. The amendment doesn’t say how long GAO could take in its review of domestic clothing production, but it gives the Defense Department just six months after receiving the report to make recommendations to Congress.

Andrews said the amendment is a good way to proceed because it “would protect the choice and quality for service members while promoting the purchase of American goods and services.”

Other lawmakers doubt the study will lead to changes. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said it will be difficult for GAO to figure out how service members spend their clothing allowances. “Service members are not required to keep records of the items that they purchase with their clothing allowance, nor are they required to set aside these dollars in a teacup to purchase uniforms only,” he said.

The Kissell amendment is attached to HR 5013, the Implementing Management for Performance and Related Reforms to Obtain Value in Every Acquisition Act of 2010, known as the IMPROVE Acquisition Act, which passed the House by a 417-3 vote. While the House passed this as separate legislation, the acquisition reform package is expected to be added later this year to the 2011 defense authorization bill — something advocates hope will improve its chances for enactment.