In the fall of 1971 the United States Congress startled the international community by voting to allow American corporations to resume chromium ore imports from Rhodesia. Clearing the Senate on October 6 and the House of Representatives on November 10, Section 503 of the 1971 Military Procurement Bill stipulated that the President could no longer restrict the importation of a strategic material from a non-communist country when that same material was being imported from a communist country. The official intent of Section 503 was to reduce American dependence on Soviet chrome imports. However, many outside observers, both foreign and domestic, claimed that this “national security” decision was as much pro-Rhodesian as it was anti-Soviet. In any case, Section 503, popularly known as the Byrd Amendment, committed the United States government to participate in a direct violation of the United Nations' mandatory economic sanctions against Rhodesia's illegal white minority government.