January 11, 2019
Status of the Natural Resources Management Uniform Program
The partial government shutdown has slowed our progress in obtaining NPS approval to open up the VF Imagewear uniform ordering site. We had anticipated a December opening, having sent the funding and other required documents to NPS in November. The NPS Contracting Officer and her staff who administer the multi- agency uniform contract are currently furloughed. We are now forced to wait until the shutdown is over to resume action to fund our program through the NPS and to allow VF to begin filling FY19 uniform orders.

Please note that VF is filling all existing FY18 back orders and their customer service center remains open for questions and status updates for all remaining FY18 orders.

The polo shirt and vinyl hat cover are no longer available under the uniform contract due to country of origin issues. The committee has reviewed several shirt replacements but a suitable item has not been found. Another shirt has just been forwarded for review with the intent of having a replacement item available in FY19. The campaign vinyl hat cover has been permanently removed from the contract and anyone wishing to obtain a hat cover will need to acquire it though other sources and by other means.

Last fall we negotiated with NPS to allow VF to fill the FY18 polo shirt orders (which had been put on hold due to country of origin issues) and many orders have now been shipped. VF anticipates completion of all polo shirt orders in the near future.

Even during the shutdown, we will continue to work with VF to consider new products and to address existing product and service issues raised during the annual park ranger surveys. New brush pants, duty shirt, duty flex trousers, maternity items, as well as the polo shirt are all under consideration. Any new product will require a contract modification by the NPS Contracting Officer.

Please continue to work with your MSC Uniform Committee representative (list below) to make employee uniform authorization changes/modifications/additions. This will help ensure that we are 100% ready when the day comes that we can all order again.

The length of the government shutdown is anyone's guess, so it's impossible right now to predict when NPS will be able to accept our funding and allow VF to open up their site. We will continue to push this action to final resolution and I apologize for the inconvenience and the impact this is having in allowing our rangers to perform their job safely and efficiently.

Stephen Austin, Natural Resources Manager
Senior Policy Advisor for Park Ranger Activities
Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

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