The Congressional Steel Hearing, chaired by U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st, held a hearing on Tuesday to listen to the concerns of the steel industry and discuss policy solutions aimed at stabilizing the industry.

The hearing featured testimony from constituents across the country, industry experts, and industry leaders on ways in which Congress can stabilize the industry and create steelworker jobs.

“We must work to stabilize the steel industry to preserve and create jobs and revitalize the economies of steel-producing regions across the U.S.,” Visclosky said. “None of us have control over the economy. But we do have control over what actions we can take to ameliorate its effect, as well as the effects of other actions and issues that impact the industry. I am proud of the Buy America provisions in the stimulus, and believe that Buy America is the foundation for our steel industry to revitalize.”

The first two panels of hearing featured testimony from residents of Indiana, Pennsylvania, and other steel regions. “They painted a vivid picture of the impacts that the recession and downturn in the steel industry are having in their communities,” said a statement released by Visclosky’s office on Tuesday. “The third panel featured industry experts who spoke of the decline in the American manufacturing sector and the imperative of rebuilding the manufacturing base. And the fourth panel featured steel industry leaders who presented their assessment of the current situation and measures that Congress can take to help stabilize the industry.”

Among the proposed policies, the statement said, were the strict enforcement of the Buy America provision in the Recovery Act; measures to prevent foreign governments from manipulating their currencies and subsidizing their exports to the U.S.; incentives to encourage companies to keep, re-open, and build facilities in the U.S.; better enforcement of trade remedy tools, especially against China; and development of green goods to create a new demand for steel.

“The USW has responded with a mobilization to once again defend and support America manufacturing,” said Jim Robinson, director of District 7 of the United Steelworkers. “We fought for the ‘Buy American’ provision in the stimulus bill; we passed local and state ‘Buy American’ resolutions; we created bus tours across the Midwest and South to demonstrate the importance of the auto industry to a strong manufacturing base and a secure standard of living for American working families.”

“Already this year, the Steel Caucus has spearheaded the effort to insert Buy American language into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, fought for the enforcement of U.S. trade law against unfair imports from countries like China, and worked hard to ensure that climate change legislation moving its way through the House does not hurt the competitiveness of the American steel industry,” the statement said.

“Proponents say we’re going to get 200 tons of steel to build a windmill, and that’s true, but it takes 78,000 tons of steel to build a clean coal power plant,” said Caucus Vice-chair Tim Murphy, R-Pa. “What we ought to be doing is spending our money tearing down our old dirty coal plants, building new ones, and using our massive energy resources off our nation’s coast to help finance a new era of clean energy.”

“We have an obligation to American taxpayers and American workers to ensure that their tax dollars are creating American jobs, and I assure you that this Caucus will not stop working to ensure that American steel has full access to stimulus funding and the resources to fairly compete in the world economy and survive this downturn,” Visclosky said.

Posted 6/17/2009