Councilman pushing for a buy American policy for Philadelphia

A Philadelphia City Councilman is proposing the city buy products made in Philadelphia or at least made in America.  

Councilman Jim Kenney says the city of Philadelphia needs to think closer to home when it comes to purchasing.  He thinks the city’s buying power could help support locally or American made goods and services.

“We can do that because we have a large amount of money we spend in buying equipment and supplies and building buildings and truck and cars and all kinds of other things and we want to make sure if we can find it made in Philadelphia or made in Pennsylvania or made in the United States then we should buy it as long as the price is not that insanely more than the winning bidder,” said Kenney.

Kenney says that doesn’t mean that foreign companies are completely out of the running for Philadelphia’s business.

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“I’m not saying because it has a foreign name we shouldn’t do it, we should look at where the parts come from how it’s assembled, who assembles it, and put that into the analysis of whether we purchase that product or not,” he said.

The bill calls for buying local as long as it doesn’t drive up costs by more than 10 percent over the lowest bid.

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