It actually required legislation to pass into law, but at least now our soldiers won’t be saluting an American flag made in China.

Thanks to Purple Heart Vietnam veteran and blue dog Democrat U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, the new law, passed as part of the 2014 omnibus bill, requires that all “flags purchased by the Department of Defense (DoD) be 100 percent ‘Made in America,’” KCBS in San Francisco reported.

“I thought it was appalling our Department of Defense would have flags made in other countries,” Thompson told the station. “But it’s also important because we need to be making more in America.”

In the days after the attack on September 11, “U.S. manufacturers could not keep up with the demand, so China stepped in,” and now, China delivers a whopping $3.3 million worth of flags to the country each year, Fox News reported.

Thompson introduced the legislation last year after learning that many of the flags used by the military were not made in America.

“I am proud to have worked to pass this law so that our men and women in uniform never have to fight under a U.S. flag made overseas, and so that our Defense Department never again spends American tax dollars on a U.S. flag made overseas,” he told KCBS.

But, the new law only applies to the Defense Department.

“[A]nother bill that called on a blanket rule for all government agencies to only use flags made in America fell short,” Fox reported. “The legislation has been historically difficult to pass in part due to trade agreements, as well as the fact that flags made in China, the largest importer, cost significantly less than ones produced in the United States.”

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